


The Lucid Berserker

by RedhathackerSin



Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Fate/stay night - All Media Types, Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fifth Holy Grail War, Fighting, Servants
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:42:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26518417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedhathackerSin/pseuds/RedhathackerSin
Summary: Illya had wanted to summon the greatest of the Greek Heroes for the Fifth Heaven's Feel, instead she got a Berserker who retained his mind and calls her Illya-hime. What kind of change can Naruto bring to Fate under the Berserker class?
Comments: 8
Kudos: 41





	1. Prologue

Illyasviel von Einzbern was ready. She had been preparing for this day for the better part of ten years. Only yesterday had she arrived at the ancestral Einzbern castle that would serve as her base for the coming Heaven’s Feel ritual. It was placed in an out of the way forest close to Fuyuki City, where the War would be conducted. 

Now she knelt down and reverently placed her artifact that the Einzbern family had painstakingly searched for to offer her the greatest chance of defeating her foes. This artifact would summon the strongest Servant under the strongest Class, provided that she chanted correctly. However, Illya never failed and this time would be no different. Her summoning would be perfect and with it she would guarantee victory.

She vaguely heard a clock strike the time in the distance. It was now three in the morning, the perfect time for her magic circuits to flow and bring forth her Servant. She closed her crimson eyes and reached deep within, to that wellspring of magic that flowed within her circuits. Imagining her “trigger,” she felt her circuits begin to hum with energy, the magic bubbling up as it happened. Taking a deep breath she began the aria.

“Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg.  
The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate.”

Illya felt the magic of the summoning beginning to take effect. It was more strenuous than she had expected, but nothing she couldn’t handle yet. She knew that by the end of this ritual she would be exhausted in body, mind, and magic.

“Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill).  
Repeat every five times.   
Simply, shatter once filled.   
――――I announce. “

Her circuits were beginning to feel as if they were on fire, but she grit her teeth and marched through the pain.

“Your self is under me, my fate(doom) is in your sword.   
In accordance with the resort of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.   
Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.   
You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance ―――!”

Illya felt as though she would explode from all the power that was trying to burst from her circuits, but she wasn’t done yet. Now was the time to ensure her victory in this war. Even with the array already aglow in an ethereal light she forged on to grasp victory.

“ Yet, thou serves with thine eyes clouded in chaos.   
Thou, bound in the cage of madness. I am he who command those chains.”

Illya could not stop grinning madly as her circuits went into overload trying to supply the necessary prana to tie a Heroic Spirit back to the impure world. An explosion of power and light originated from the center of the summoning circle, casting the room into a shadowy smoke.

Finally the power began to condense into a humanoid shape and Ilya could feel the prana stabilizing as the shape coalesced. At last the smoke began to clear and Illya couldn’t help but frown as her own crimson red eyes met with sky blue. 

The smoke cleared entirely and Illya finally got a good look at the being which she had summoned. He was of a decent height, around six feet, and his eyes were framed by sun kissed blonde hair. He had three strange whisker marks adorning each cheek and a strong jaw. An odd headband with a metal plate in the center and sporting some form of insignia kept his bangs from falling into his eyes. His attire was that of an orange and black jumpsuit adorned by a red haori that had black flames licking the bottom. The last notable feature she could see was the giant scroll which sat comfortably on his lower back.

For a moment Master and Servant could only examine each other, but that passed as the Servant broke the silence. 

“You who have summoned me, I ask of you, are you my Master?”


	2. First Night

Berserker, who had been formerly known as Uzumaki Naruto in a past life, was confused. He was surprised that someone had been able to summon him at all considering he wasn’t the most well known hero, and if the amount of prana (which he automatically knew was the new term for chakra) that he felt seeping into him from the little girl outside the circle was anything to go by, she probably was expecting someone else. Well, he supposed it didn’t matter to him.

However, this little slip of a girl wasn’t the cause of his confusion. Thanks to the Grail he now had a plethora of knowledge about the modern world stuffed into his head and the little girl was obviously a magus. No, his confusion was for something much simpler. He knew that he had been summoned under the class of Berserker, but he couldn’t figure out why his mind was so  _ clear _ . If what he understood from the Grail was right he should be nothing more than a mindless beast, a terrifyingly strong mindless beast, but a mindless beast nonetheless. 

Finally he felt the ritual complete and he began to comprehend his own lucidity. He then made eye contact with the little girl who had apparently summoned him. Sky blue met a bloody crimson and he took a moment to evaluate his new Master. 

She had flowing white hair that framed her face that stopped around her lower back. Her skin was much fairer than he had been expecting, almost like snow. She was also wearing a simple white skirt with sensible purple boots and a purple jacket. Her ensemble was topped off by a lighter purple ribbon tied at her collar. 

Berserker was feeling a bit antsy now that the silence had stretched for longer than he was comfortable with and decided to take the initiative. 

“You who have summoned me, I ask of you, are you my Master?”

The girl simply stared at him for a moment as if trying to comprehend what he had just asked. A kaleidoscope of emotions played across her face in this time period: bewilderment, anger, sorrow, fear, loneliness, and then a grudging sort of acceptance.

However, as quick as the emotions came, they were gone in a flash, locked behind the steel cage of an iron will. A cool indifference seemed to replace them as she finally answered him.

“I suppose I am.”

Her voice was light and sounded as though it had a hint of ice to it, fitting considering the color of her hair.

“Although it annoys me to do this, I must ask. Are you Heracles? You don’t look anything like what I expected if you are, and did you fall under the Berserker class?”

This inquiry gave Berserker a small pause, before amusement began filtering into his thought process. Thanks to the Grail he had some knowledge of the workings of Heroic Spirits and he had to say that the little lady certainly set her standards fairly high. After all she had set out to summon one of the greatest Greek Heroes and under the Berserker class no less? No wonder she was feeling such bewilderment, if their positions had been reversed he would have felt the same. 

It seemed as though his contemplation was beginning to get on her nerves if the frown that was beginning to adorn her face was anything to go by, but he could not help the amusement that crept into his voice as he answered her question.

“Sorry to disappoint, Master, but I’m not the greatest Hero from Greek Myth.”

Her eyes instantly held a bit of disappointment at that statement, but Berserker wasn’t done quite yet.

“I did, however, fall under the Berserker Class in this particular Grail War.” 

The girl’s sharp eyes now took in everything about him, as if trying to decide whether or not he was lying to her. 

“You’re surprisingly lucid for someone who is summoned under your classification.”

Berserker couldn’t help smirking a bit at her remark. After all, he now understood that the one with Madness Enhancement was his Noble Phantasm, someone who had been with him since his birth and was intrinsically tied to his soul. His lucid state was more because he wasn’t using his Noble Phantasm and he didn’t really want to if his suspicions were correct. His Master would have to use a command seal to get him to use  _ that _ . He supposed victory would be assured with the usage of it, but most, if not all, of Fuyuki would be wiped off the map as well. Thankfully his Master seemed like a fairly sensible person, so he supposed he would answer truthfully.

“The reason for this is actually most likely because of my Noble Phantasm. Rest assured, with Madness Enhancement it is befitting of the Berserker Class, but I refuse to use it in such a densely populated area.”

Berserker sent a mental apology to his partner from birth as his Master glanced down at her command seals for a moment, but Berserker decided to nip that in the bud right away. 

“Don’t try to use those and force me to, if I use it anywhere near you, you won’t survive the aftermath, even with the ridiculous amount of od you’ve got flowing through you.”

His Master studied him for a moment before apparently coming to a decision. 

“My name is Illyasviel von Einzbern. You may call me Illya when we are in private and address me as Master everywhere else. Since you aren’t Heracles, what do I call you?”

Berserker’s grin took on an almost fox-like quality as he mockingly bowed to the little princess. 

“My true name doesn’t matter at the moment, suffice to say you may call me Berserker for the time being, Ilya-hime.”

Berserker felt a sense of satisfaction as he observed a light dusting of red cross his new Master’s face at his nickname for her. She crossed her arms in a huff and looked away, trying in vain to cover her embarrassment. Once she had her blush under control she turned to him once more. 

“Very well then, Berserker, since you appear to be much more lucid than I had anticipated, I want you to take this time to go out and familiarize yourself with the city, are there any problems with that?”

Berserker merely shook his head in the negative at his Master’s query.

“Good. Since you are like this, it will make the Servants second guess what type of class you are, probably never even knowing that you are the Berserker Class unless you explicitly state it and even then they might not believe you.”

Berserker smirked at this, they would be in for a surprise, and just because he didn’t want to access his Noble Phantasm didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous in his own right. He decided that he liked the order that the little princess had given him and gave another bow, perhaps a little less mockingly this time.

“Your wish is my command Ilya-hime. I’ll be back after I scout the city and see how many Servants are currently active.”

Ilya couldn’t stop the blush that formed on her face once more and was about to rebuke her Servant on that ridiculous nickname, but he astralized before she could. She then lost track of him since she wasn’t actively looking through his senses. In a heartbeat he crossed the grounds and began to make his way into the city. For the first time a small smile played across her lips. Perhaps she had summoned a decent Servant after all.

* * *

Berserker stood atop the tallest tower in the city, haori and headband blowing in the breeze. He had abandoned his scroll in one of the many rooms of the Einzbern castle as it would have stood out too much. However after walking through the streets trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, he realized that he just stood out too much. Even if he wasn’t wearing something that was drastically different from what was the norm in Japan, his features stood out far too much. Apparent blonde hair, blue eyes, and whisker marks were not very common in modern day Japan. 

He breathed in the fresh air as he became entirely still. It had been awhile and since he was in a city and it took him slightly longer than he would have felt comfortable with, but eventually he felt prana flowing into him enabling him to slip into Sage Mode. 

It was in this state that the city truly came to life for him. He could feel every living thing in the city and it was almost enough to overwhelm his senses. Although Konoha had been one of the larger villages in his own time, it was still quite small compared to even the fairly small city of Fuyuki. There were hundreds of thousands of people here and it was hard to feel all of them at once as well as all of the wildlife and pets and plants. However, he was also able to sense a few prana signatures that were outrageous compared to the many others he was feeling. He zeroed in on those to try and pinpoint whether or not there was anything happening. 

It seemed that he was in luck. He could feel at least two signatures rising to ridiculous levels and he quickly deduced that there were two Servants battling. It seemed that they were in the direction of a school, how intriguing. However, there was something even more worrying than the Servants’ little spat at a school. He was able to detect at least seven Servant signatures in total. As far as he knew he was the sixth Servant to be summoned, so who was this curious contender that felt quite powerful? And why did they feel so tainted? Almost like that bit of area where he had felt nothing growing. He supposed that was a question for another day. For the time being he thought he would go drop a hello to the fighting Servants and find out just what their fighting style would be.

* * *

Lancer was getting thoroughly annoyed at the bastard he was fighting. They had been matching each other blow for blow, even though he had broken the bastard’s blades,  _ five times _ ! It was ridiculous. No matter what he did he couldn’t seem to gain the upper hand against this bozo. It seemed he might need to utilize his Noble Phantasm soon, but he really didn’t want to, not to mention his dumbass Master’s orders.. Once again he engaged that red clad white haired bastard and then the man suddenly threw one of his blades at him, materializing another one immediately after. Lancer was barely able to dodge and then block the Servant’s follow up attack before the two sprang away from each other once more for a slight breather.

“I have to say, you both have some pretty interesting moves.”

Lancer’s attention was immediately grabbed by the newcomer who had just spoken. He had light blonde hair kept out of his blue eyes by a headband and was dressed in a garish orange, black, and red. He also seemed to be wearing some type of strange sandals. There was also the fact that he was sitting on top of the fence utterly relaxed, one hand placed on his crossed leg, the other placed under his chin to support his head.

The man clad in red also seemed to be wary of this man. He didn’t seem to give any presence, so perhaps he was Assassin? But that would be ridiculous, the man had announced his presence for everyone in the vicinity to hear, and even the red clad man’s little Master seemed shocked by this turn of events if her slightly open mouth was anything to go by. 

The man’s eyes then closed to near slits as he gave a very fox-like smile. 

“Oh don’t stop on my account! It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a good fight and you guys were-”

Whatever the man was going to say he was cut off when a midnight black sword spun in his direction, courtesy of the red clad bastard. However, the blade was knocked away almost lazily with what appeared to be some sort of knife that had seemed to have materialized from nowhere. 

“Maa, maa. None of that now! I decided to simply be a spectator tonight, and what did you idiots expect would happen throwing around that much prana? To simply be ignored? I don’t think so.”

The little Master seemed to be growing more and more irritated at how casually the newcomer was talking, as if he were simply out for a stroll and not staring down two enemy Servants. Lancer had to admire his guts if nothing else. It took pretty big balls to stare down two enemy Servants and be utterly nonchalant about it. Then the guy glanced over at Lancer. Lancer saw as he took in Lancer’s appearance and particularly his spear. It seemed as though he was calculating something. 

“Hmm, well it’s obvious that the dude in blue is Lancer, but what about you, guy in red?”

The previously named bastard stiffened under the blonde’s measuring look and his Master seemed to stand a little straighter as well. He didn’t know why, but this new bastard had a dangerous air about him, an almost unpredictable nature that would make it very difficult to fight him, so naturally Lancer jumped at the chance.

“Hey, if you’re gonna try to figure out this bastard I would tell you not to waste your time. The dude makes no sense. He uses blades, but claims he isn’t a Saber, so I got nothing on him.”

The blonde man flicked his gaze in Lancer’s direction, but then a grim smile crept over his face. 

“I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out, especially since he threw something at you so accurately, if I had to guess I’d say he was an Archer.”

Lancer blinked. The red guy blinked. His Master blinked. Then Lancer smacked his forehead. 

“Son of a bitch! He’s right isn’t he? How the hell didn’t I figure that out?”

That bastard had thrown something so accurately on an impulse. If he hadn’t dodged he would have had an artery nicked. The only people who could really pull something like that off were an Archer or an Assassin. 

Archer merely smiled with contempt at Lancer, neither confirming nor denying the new guy’s accusation. Lancer was kind of annoyed, what kind of Archer used swords anyway and fought in close combat? Sighing, Lancer lazily spun his signature weapon in a circle. Perhaps he would have to finish this quicker than he thought and then kill that blonde haired bastard as well, he really didn’t like blonde hair at the moment. 

However before anything else could occur, there was a crash. Lancer blinked as he looked over to near where the gym was and saw a student with bright red hair standing in the moonlight observing all of them. Well, shit. Looked like Lancer now had to kill some innocent kid. Unfortunately, as soon as he made a movement to chase down the kid, the blonde haired guy was in his face and throwing a kick.

Lancer barely had time to be surprised as he blocked the kick with the shaft of his lance and felt like he had blocked a semi. His arms shook as he was sent flying backwards, skidding to a halt. Even though he was unharmed, he really was annoyed that the little shit had decided to butt in. 

“What’s the big idea? The runt saw something he shouldn’t have and now he’s gotta die, that’s just the rules my Master set for me.”

The blonde merely smiled in response as two of those knives shot out of his sleeves. He then took a battle stance and Lancer realized that Archer and his Master had somehow slipped away in the commotion that blonde haired guy had caused. 

“Sorry, but I’d rather not kill some kid just because he happened to wander into a battle between Servants. If you want to kill him you’ll have to get past me.”

Lancer couldn’t help the slightly bloodthirsty grin that came unbidden to his face as he heard that declaration. Get past the runt who intended to fight against his lance with two little knives? He could do that.

“You’re on!”

* * *

Berserker was beginning to regret his decision in confronting Lancer head on. It was rather annoying to fight a lance with nothing but kunai, but it was something that he would have to deal with. It wasn’t the thrusts or the point that he had to worry about, it was the freaking shaft. If the blade missed, the damn thing could still take out one of his ribs if he wasn’t careful. The two of them had been exchanging blows for around thirty seconds and neither was giving any ground. Perhaps it was time to up the ante.

Berserker caught the lance on his kunai and redirected it while throwing his other at Lancer’s head. Naturally Lancer moved his head away, but Berserker was ready for this. He slid his kunai up and got inside Lancer’s guard. Another kunai popped out from his sleeve into his waiting hand and he slashed at Lancer’s artery.

Lancer saw the move coming from a mile away and instead of struggling, merely went with the flow and spun out of the way so that he was positioned behind Berserker. He then surprised Berserker by throwing a reverse punch. Thankfully he wasn’t too surprised and sprung forward into a roll to avoid the punch. As he came out of it he whirled around to once more face Lancer.

The two were still breathing normally, despite the physical and mental effort that last exchange had taken for the both of them. Berserker couldn’t help but smirk at Lancer’s own expression. It was Lancer that broke the silence first.

“Not bad. Not bad at all. You know your way around a lance, I wasn’t expecting you to get so close. Most people try to get out of my reach.”

Berserker snorted at that.

“That’d be useless. If I can get in your guard I can nullify your reach so that you don’t have enough room to swing your lance with your full strength. I gotta say though, I wasn’t expecting you to be competent in hand to hand too.”

Lancer scoffed at that.

“Please, we’re Heroic Spirits, even if it isn’t common only Caster can’t really fight physically like that, and I wouldn’t underestimate them just in case.”

Berserker inclined his head at that.

“I suppose that’s true, in any case, I’ve drawn first blood.”

Lancer seemed confused at this declaration and was about to voice this objection, when a sliver of blood dribbled down his cheek. Lancer seemed slightly shocked by it as a cut materialized on his cheek. He tentatively raised a hand to touch the wound. He then had a vicious smile break across his face and the bloodlust on the school grounds increased.

“I need to hand it to you, that was a clean cut. I never even felt your blade slice my skin, how terrifyingly sharp. I think you deserve this particular attack I’m going to do, and then I can get back to that brat that tried to run away.”

Berserker seemed curious as to what Lancer was planning, and his eyes widened as Lancer took a strange stance and the bloodlust increased tenfold. It almost felt… demonic.

There was no doubt about it, this was the feeling he had every time he came face to face with his own inner demon, although it was much more scaled back, even if it would have been suffocating to normal people. Whatever Lancer was about to do, it was not going to be pleasant.

After only a few seconds Lancer planted his feet firmly and shouted to the heavens.

“Gáe-” 

Berserker’s eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen. He desperately threw a kunai at Lancer, hoping to disrupt his concentration. However, he wasn’t quick enough.

“-Bolg!”

With that Lancer stabbed  _ away _ from Berserker. However, he had obviously used his Noble Phantasm and with that surety, Gáe Bolg reversed the nature of causality. Berserker’s heart had already been pierced by the time Gáe Bolg’s name had been said. So it wasn’t a surprise to Lancer when Berserker was pierced and blood bubbled out from his mouth in a cough. What was a surprise, was that he puffed into white smoke almost immediately afterwards. What the hell was that?

* * *

Berserker sat up as he gained the experience from the clone he had sent to witness the battle between two Servants. Apparently an idiot student had stumbled on them and the Lancer of the war had immediately decided to kill the boy. He couldn’t help be but annoyed, he was too far to make any difference at the moment. He had sent the clone to observe and perhaps engage in a fight with the two Servants to pick apart their fighting style, but he wasn’t expecting Lancer to use his Noble Phantasm so soon. That was going to be annoying to fight for real. He supposed he would have to make sure that Lancer couldn’t use it. 

He sighed as he began walking back toward his Master’s base. However before he had even gotten halfway there he had to do a double take. There on the other side of the road stood that student from before. He looked a little worse for wear, but he was definitely alive, which was strange since Berserker was fairly certain that without him to mitigate the damage, the boy’s days were numbered if Lancer went after him.

Berserker couldn’t help but sigh as he saw the boy carelessly meandering up the road, probably to his house. Why did he have to have such a bleeding heart? This war was meant to be ruthless, but he had always tried to protect the innocent from war. He supposed it was simply in his nature to care, even when he really did not want to. With his mind made up he decided to follow the boy. Perhaps his paranoia would be wrong and Lancer didn’t know he was still alive?

* * *

He really shouldn’t have tried to jinx himself. Of course Lancer realized that his prey had escaped and had spent the last five minutes playing with the poor boy. However, Berserker didn’t want to interfere unless it was absolutely necessary. His clone had died quite painfully from that cursed spear and he wasn’t going to take any chances. Besides as long as Lancer merely played with the boy he was still safe. However, it seemed that it was finally time for his intervention. He couldn’t mistake that bloodlust that was permeating the old style Japanese mansion that the student was living in. Even the street was filled with it. Sighing, Berserker hopped over the fence and flung a kunai at the man. 

Lancer seemed surprised that someone had interfered, even if he was able to deflect the kunai. Once more Berserker and Lancer faced off, although Berserker could sense his fellow Servant’s annoyance.

“Didn’t I already kill you? What’s with all these people coming back to life tonight?”

Berserker merely smiled indulgently for the Heroic Spirit. 

“Sorry, but I’m a lot harder to kill than what you tried before. I guess I’ll have to start out strong this time to make sure you aren’t able to use that damn move again.”

Lancer sneered as he suddenly exploded into action. Berserker’s eyes narrowed as he was barely able to block the first strike. He was also thrown back into the wall causing it to crack.

“That was a lot faster and stronger than before. Were you holding back last time?”

Lancer lazily twirled his weapon before he set himself in a battle stance.

“My Master is a bit of a coward, he mostly just has me scouting out the competition right now and has ordered me to not fight as well as I could in my initial encounters with opponents. However-”

Berserker grimaced as he realized what Lancer was implying. 

“This is the second time you’ve fought me so you’re able to fight at full strength this time around. How troublesome.”

Sighing, Berserker shifted into his own battle stance and felt himself warily watching Lancer. The man was fast, now it was just a matter as to how fast. For a moment neither fighter moved and then they both exploded into action.

The fight became a flurry of slashes, thrusts, and hand to hand as the two Servants battled for keeps this time around. For one momentarily forgotten Emiya Shirou, it was almost too much. He observed Lancer fighting the mysterious blonde stranger who he vaguely recognized from earlier on in the night. Had he really thought he could have held that monster in blue off? The man was too fast for Shirou’s eyes to truly follow and he knew his own mediocre magus skills would not be enough to even stall the man for a second. He came to the depressing conclusion that this Lancer person had just been toying with him. He yearned to be able to do something about his weakness, to try and help the blonde man, because deep down Emiya Shirou had always wanted to be a Hero of Justice. 

Berserker had no time to ponder about the boy as he was busy trying to keep up with Lancer’s lightning quick movements. The man wasn’t lying, he had been holding back during their first encounter. However, Berserker had a few tricks up his sleeve now that he was fighting in person instead of via a clone.

“You weren’t kidding, you were holding back quite a bit. Unfortunately for you, so was I.”

With that said, Berserker dispelled the clone that had been quietly gathering nature prana in the woods near the Einzbern estate. He welcomed the change to Sage Mode as he felt everything become much clearer. It was exhilarating and he intended to end this fight quickly now that he was no longer hindered by his normal state. 

Lancer seemed surprised when Berserker appeared in a burst of speed in the Servant’s guard once more, but he didn’t let up as he slammed a fist into the blue clad Servant’s stomach, taking great satisfaction in the whoosh of air involuntarily let out because of it. 

It was Lancer’s turn to go flying backwards, crashing through one of the shoji doors that led into the house. Berserker knew that the battle wasn’t over, even with a direct punch in Sage Mode the bastard had survived and he stumbled out of the house, only looking a little worse for wear. Heroic Spirits really were kind of terrifying. He had destroyed one of Pain’s bodies with a punch in Sage Mode, yet Lancer was able to get up and looked ready to continue battle even after his disastrous showing this time around.

Berserker frowned, if Lancer was this tough, perhaps it was time to bring out some of his more destructive moves, lest he end up dead because of carelessness. Letting out a resigned sigh, he raised his right hand and curled his fingers. It almost appeared as though he was holding a ball or a balloon. However, that soon changed as a glowing blue ball of energy began to coalesce in the center of his palm before it grew to be around the size of a softball.

It was time to end this particular spat. Berserker charged forward at a speed that even Lancer could barely keep up with, he raised his spear and a cry of “Gáe!” left his lips before he readjusted and slammed his spear into Berserker’s shoulder. Unfortunately it was the shoulder that wasn’t holding the glowing blue sphere and Berserker smashed the attack into Lancer’s abdomen. Once more Lancer was sent flying into the house and Shirou couldn’t help but wince at the wanton destruction caused within his own home.

Berserker on the other hand was swearing a storm in his head. True the spear had missed anything vital, but the damn thing hurt like a bitch and had punched through his durability of Sage Mode rather easily. Sighing, he straightened out of the attack form that he had had to use to deliver a successful Rasengan. He was sure that Lancer was totally unprepared for that attack, it had been a long time since anyone had used jutsu instead of magic, and the destructive nature was somewhat lost because of it.

Just as he was turning around to inspect the boy, he felt a demonic presence erupt from behind him, filling the house with bloodlust and despair. Damn it. The bastard had lived through a direct Rasengan in Sage Mode and still had enough left in him to fight. What was with this guy?

Lancer limped out of the rubble a manic grin plastered on his face. He was bleeding pretty severely from his stomach, and Berserker had to wonder just how the hell the man was standing. He was also panting and leaning heavily on his spear. Then his wound began to heal right before Berserker’s eyes. 

“Too bad for you, but my Master is keeping an eye on me. Thankfully he helps if I get wounded like this, and the fact that I have high Battle Continuation means you two aren’t getting away tonight.”

Berserker narrowed his eyes at this declaration, but before he could do anything, an ethereal glow came from the shed that the two had been battling by. Berserker was confused for a moment, but Lancer clearly had some idea of what had just occurred as he was now expanding Berserker’s string of curse words to Gaelic, it sounded like it would be a fun language to curse in.

Out of the shed stepped someone who Berserker could only describe as royalty. She had bright blonde hair done up in a sensible bun that framed a face that held piercing aqua eyes. Her attire consisted of a blue dress trimmed with white and armor over it. She had on some sort of metal gauntlets and boots and was apparently holding some form of weapon, even if it was invisible to the naked eye. 

Berserker was now quite wary of this person. She had stepped into the field of battle and clearly considered both himself and Lancer enemies if her cold stare was anything to go by. Finally it clicked as to what that boy had been able to do. Apparently he had a wish of his own, because he had just summoned a Servant for the Heaven’s Feel. Fate just loved to mock him. He stuck his neck out for some random person who he didn’t want involved in this war and he goes and gets himself involved anyway. What the hell was the point of fighting Lancer if the little bastard was going to summon someone in any case?

The newly summoned Servant pierced all of them with a regal gaze and finally spoke.

“It seems my Master has made a few enemies already, how dangerous. I suppose I will just have to take the two of you on at the same time to protect him, even if it might be a little difficult.”

Berserker had had enough, he let Sage Mode dissipate and let out a sigh, drawing the attention of the other two.

“Truth be told, I really don’t want to get into it with you two right now. I was only here trying to keep the kid from dying, now that he’s got his own Servant to do that, I don’t think I’m really needed any longer.”

The new Servant seemed surprised at his declaration, but Lancer seemed downright murderous. 

“Oh no you don’t, you son of a bitch! We were just getting to the good part, I haven’t been hit like that in forever, and you don’t even have that much of a wound on you even though you took Gáe Bolg to the shoulder!”

It was true, Berserker’s wound hadn’t been a problem, mostly because he had been in Sage Mode when Lancer had injured him, or at least appeared to have injured him.

Berserker’s own piercing blue gaze met Lancer’s confused one and he simply shrugged. 

“I wanted to protect the brat over in the shed from you and keep him as an innocent bystander. Unfortunately he went and summoned a Servant of his own.”

He then turned his attention to the new Servant, who was gazing at him with mistrust. She seemed to grip whatever weapon she was hiding a bit firmer as the two of them held each other’s gaze.

Finally Berserker decided to speak.

“You have this one pass.”

Evidently whatever the Servant was expecting him to say, this was not it as she looked somewhat confused at his words. So Berserker decided to elaborate.

“You have one pass, I know this is a war, but truth be told I find this war kinda annoying. I have a wish of course, but I think I’m actually looking more forward to testing my mettle against other Heroic Spirits than anything else. I was actually just trying to scout tonight, but things just kind of escalated after that idiot got involved.”

Shirou actually managed to look slightly offended at that, but kept his mouth shut.

“So I’m giving you this one free pass, I’m not gonna attack you right now.”

The Servant’s hands loosened their grip on their weapon in response to his admittance, but it was more out of the open faced shock that Berserker could read on his fellow Servant’s face.

Lancer on the other hand looked very much like he wanted to impale Berserker on his spear.

“Now wait just a goddamn minute! We were fighting first, it was just getting good, I don’t even care about the boy anymore. I just want to finish our battle!”

Berserker merely shrugged at Lancer’s admission.

“Sorry, but I’m done, I’ll fight you more some other time, I guess you could settle for this little lady here though.”

The still unnamed Servant looked indignant, as though the very thought of being second best, even in a battle that she had just interrupted was an insult. It seemed as though Lancer also didn’t want to be fighting the newcomer when his previous battle was still half finished.

“Well too bad, I’m gonna fight you anyway, whether you like it or not!”

With that said Lancer sprung forward attempting to skewer the blonde. He was surprised when he did and the blonde exploded into white smoke once more. Lancer was really getting annoyed by that technique.

* * *

Berserker was whistling a jaunty tune as he traveled through the darkened forest outside the Einzbern’s estate. He had not expected to run into three Servants in his scouting, but it was certainly interesting to see how they all handled themselves in battle, even if the last Servant he met didn’t actually fight him. He had to say, he used the kawarimi with his clone pretty well. It let him slip away and get a little more information, such as the female Servant’s reaction to being told that she had a free pass. He chuckled to himself as he remembered the indignation that was rampant on the Servant’s face when Lancer said he would prefer to fight him still. It really was an interesting day after all. It seemed that these Heroic Spirits were a lot stronger than he had been expecting. Berserker smiled. He couldn’t wait to see what other Heroes had gathered for this war; hopefully he would be able to keep innocent deaths down. He had his work cut out for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my good readers. I must say this little crossover has been on my mind for quite a while. It was actually kind of agonizing because I had actually written every servant class out and tried to figure out which one Naruto could fall under. In the end I chose the Berserker class. However it is mostly because of the Kyuubi that this choice came about. Before Naruto learned of Kurama’s name every time he used the chakra he was a berserker so I thought I could spin that.  
> Then I had to decide on whether or not I wanted to do the Fourth War or the Fifth, and ultimately settled on the Fifth, mostly because I wanted to summon one other person from Naruto as the Assassin class. I wish you luck in guessing which one it is, if you PM with a guess I’ll tell you if you are wrong or right. There was a prologue chapter mostly to showcase the summoning ritual because I have always enjoyed that aria and it deserves its own chapter even if it is only a few hundred words as opposed to a few thousand. That’s pretty much the reason I added the two chapters at the same time as opposed to waiting a bit and feeling out whether or not I should continue. 
> 
> For those of you that were drawn to this story because of The Death God Ashikabi, I welcome you to my first Nasuverse fic. Once more I am doing a crossover with more of a grasp on one fandom rather than another, but I’ll endeavor to work on Nasuverse stuff. For those of you first reading something of my works, I welcome you! I hope you will continue to enjoy this story as I continue to update it.
> 
> Now on to some concerns I can already see popping up. Illya is absent throughout most of this because Naruto is merely scouting the area as far as she knows, the next chapter will have her reaction to Naruto’s actions. Lancer’s Battle Continuation is stupid high, so he could take a direct Rasengan and a Sage Mode punch, even Naruto was surprised that he got up. The fact that he was healed was more a plot driving point, but I could see Kotomine doing so.   
> This will be quite the enjoyable fic and I hope it will become as popular as my BLEACH/Sekirei crossover. As of right now there are no pairings, but that may change in the future. Also this will probably not be as light hearted as Death God Ashikabi. After all, Nasuverse is much darker than either BLEACH or Sekirei. There will also probably be more cursing as I feel Nasuverse just requires it. It’ll still be fun to write though.
> 
> Now then I think I’ve gotten all of my randomness out of the way for this chapter so time to state some things. If you guys know a beta, or are a beta, PM me! I really need one for this fic. As of right now there is none, so there might be some typos and grammatical errors. If you have any questions or concerns PM me! If you’re feeling generous leave a review! Now then on to the disclaimer, because if you are new that’s just how I roll, disclaimer at the bottom.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fate/Stay Night. They belong to Kishimoto Masashi and Type-Moon respectively. Please support the official release!
> 
> P.S. This is a cross posting from fanfiction.net so most of the notes at the end will be a bit outdated. However, like the other fics I have on here I'm doing a bit of touch up and uploading it here. Unlike the others, this story actually has quite a few chapters, so it'll be a bit before I hit the cap. I'm mostly doing this to get a bit of spark back into my writing and hopefully be able to continue the story which has been stopped due to other things irl. That's all for now! Thanks for reading!


	3. First Night (cont)

Berserker was feeling pretty good as he walked into the ancestral Einzbern castle. He had had a good time scouting and fighting the various Servants that had been summoned, even if it was only Lancer that he really fought. However, his good mood was about to take a hit as he saw his little Master descending the staircase that adorned the entrance hall of the castle. 

“So Berserker, I trust that your scouting exercise bore fruit?”

Berserker felt an odd sense of doom emanating from his Master, but he chose to ignore it.

“I’d say that it did, I was able to confirm that all of the Servants have now been summoned and the War is about to begin for real.”

Illya made some sort of non-committal grunt at Berserker’s report before she narrowed her eyes at her Servant.

“And is there any particular reason that you decided to actually  _ fight _ a Servant and reveal yourself when you were on a scouting mission?”

Berserker winced a little from the tone that Illya was using, but he couldn’t help the fox like grin that he felt creeping across his face at her knowing about his fights. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he replied.

“Sorry, I actually didn’t intend to get into any sort of fights, they just kind of happened. Were you watching through my eyes?”

Illya gave a curt nod. She folded her arms superiorly and gave the impression that she was quite annoyed with her Servant.

“I saw who you were fighting and what happened towards the end. I was beginning to think that you had died when you didn’t come back after a long time.”

Berserker was curious as to why she would think that, when he realized that she had been worried. Perhaps not for him as a person, but rather she was worried he had gone and lost her only chance at the Holy Grail. He wasn’t entirely sure why Illya wanted the wish granting device, but he knew that to be a part of this war she had to have something that she wanted desperately. Enough to kill for it.

“My apologies, Illya-hime, I’ll try to conduct myself in a more appropriate manner from now on.”

There it was. It seemed that his little pet name for his Master really got under her skin if that blush was anything to go by. However, she readily regained control of herself and looked at him with a serious gaze.

“Well what’s done is done. Berserker!”

Berserker felt himself involuntarily straighten at his Master’s call. It seemed he was about to be given a new mission.

“Accompany me for a walk. I have a need to see just how this new Master stacks up and I have a hunch I know where he is going to be heading to.”

Berserker merely nodded his consent and the two exited the castle, walking through the forest at a sedate pace. So, Ilya-hime had an interest in the new Master of the War did she? Well he supposed that he became interested by default. The young man who had unintentionally summoned Saber, just what kind of person was he?

* * *

Emiya Shirou was actually feeling quite distraught at the moment. He had just had a conversation with Kotomine Kirei, the overseer for the Fifth Holy Grail War, and the man had pushed all of the buttons needed to rile him up. He had resolved to participate in the war for as long as he possibly could to try and control the collateral damage that would undoubtedly put many innocent lives in harm’s way. 

Unfortunately for him, Kirei had seemed to take great pleasure in messing with his head. He supposed he was quite lucky that Tohsaka had come to him and explained at least a little of what he was getting into. He was still amazed that the petite girl that he had apparently summoned was in fact a Heroic Spirit from the past, even if he had been witness to her skill as she fought off that blue guy which he had learned was classified as Lancer.

He was feeling more than a little bit tired as he trekked through the night and approached the waiting Tohsaka and Saber. It had been a long and trying day, he had almost died. Hell, he  _ had  _ died, he knew he was dead, but he had been given a second chance. With that second chance he had found out about a secret war between magi, and he fully intended to keep the deaths to a minimum. Even if everything that Kirei had said to him was able to get under his skin, he couldn’t deny that this was indeed his chance to grasp his dream and become a Hero of Justice. He would just have to figure out how to do so throughout the course of the war.

Tohsaka Rin looked utterly unimpressed as she stood waiting for Shirou. She was dressed in her usual attire of their school uniform with a red jacket, probably worn to fight the growing chill. Her midnight raven hair was done up into twin pigtails and her blue eyes seemed to be piercing the night as she tried to be on the lookout for anything and everything. Shirou couldn’t help but notice that she looked fairly beautiful in the moonlight, which had just washed over her as a few clouds parted. He also knew that Issei had been right to suspect what kind of snake she was from the start. 

He sighed as his gaze inevitably was drawn to the Heroic Spirit that he had apparently summoned. No matter how he looked, Saber seemed to be an ordinary girl. It was somewhat hard to believe that she was a Spirit from the past that had transcended mortality and been granted a place on the Throne of Heroes. He wondered what hero she had been in the past and if he had ever heard any stories about her.

Unfortunately, before he could even attempt to converse with his Servant, both Rin and Saber snapped to attention and were glaring down the road. Shirou couldn’t help but follow their gazes to see what had put the two of them so on edge. 

A little further down the path was a young girl with snow white hair and red irises. Her demeanor was utterly relaxed as she continued her steady approach and with a jolt Shirou recognized the girl that he had briefly spoken to earlier that day, or was it yesterday? It was so late and so much had happened that Shirou had somewhat lost track of time. Seeing the girl here, in the reflection of the moonlight almost made her presence seem ethereal. Then she started to speak to them.

“I’m glad you took my advice, Onii-chan. It would have been terribly tragic if you hadn’t entered into this war. After all, I entered in the hopes that I would meet you.”

Her voice was light and playful, but there was a certain edge to it that he hadn’t noticed before. She didn’t seem to be in the playing kind of mood and if the tension he could still feel from Rin and Saber was anything to go by, she was obviously some kind of threat to them.

Before anything else could be done, a new player entered the field in a sparkling of materialization. It was the person that had approached him earlier and had saved him. However, he didn’t look very kind right now, or very forgiving. His eyes were stern and were locked solely on Saber.

The girl apparently was oblivious to the appearance of the man and continued to converse with Shirou.

“Even if it’s the first night, perhaps we should test your Servant and see how well she stacks up against my own. What do you say?”

Shirou thought that the question might have been directed at him, but it was the whiskered Servant that answered the inquiry.

“Well, I didn’t expect to have to fight you so soon. It looks like your one free pass was all for naught. I’ll do what you ask Ilya-hime. This Servant intrigues me quite a bit.”

His piece said the blonde moved forward to face off against Saber, who had taken a defensive position of her own in response to the Servant’s words. Apparently Shirou’s opinion on the matter was forfeit. He would have to restrain himself, even though he thought it was wrong for Saber to fight by herself against this opponent, there wasn’t much he could do. If he did see an opening he wouldn’t hesitate to try and take it, despite the debt that he might owe the blonde for protecting him earlier.

* * *

Berserker stood across from the Servant that had been summoned earlier. She was standing defensively in front of him, a regally defiant look etched across her features. He was quite interested in the fact that her weapon seemed to be invisible. Even though she was clearly holding something he could not discern exactly what it was, he also thought he could hear the faint whisper of wind coming from it. 

Berserker felt a smirk beginning to adorn his features. She wanted to fight with wind? Well, it seemed that he might be a rather bad match for her.

“Tell me.”

The Servant seemed to start at his voice, but merely clenched her grip tighter, preparing for any kind of attack that he might make.

“Are you fighting with some sort of blade made of air, or is the air merely covering your blade to hide it’s identity?”

The Servant seemed surprised at his inquiry, and he was sure that the answer that slipped out of her mouth was unintentional.

“It merely sheathes my blade.”

Berserker felt another grin form at that. So she had an actual blade did she? And by her knightly and regal demeanor she was definitely one of the knight classes. Since he already knew who Lancer and Archer were, that left only one spot. 

“It’s interesting that I would be fighting the Saber of this war so soon. I’ve heard that they’re supposed to be one of the best classes that can be summoned.”

He heard a snort from the sidelines and redirected some of his attention to the other girl that was with Saber and his Master. He was surprised that he recognized the girl from earlier that night who had commanded the Archer. What an interesting development. Had the two already made some sort of alliance?

He felt amusement as she muttered to herself about the unfairness of not being able to summon what she considered the “best” class, and instead a third rate magus got it instead. So the boy wasn’t the best of mages? That made him an underdog, and Berserker could always relate to the underdogs. It was a shame that this was a war and he had a duty to accomplish.

He once more turned his full attention to Saber, who still had not made any threatening moves. Perhaps she was more of a counter type of specialist? Well, if she was giving an invitation, he would gladly accept. With a blur of the arm he flung a kunai at her. She didn’t even seem surprised as she easily knocked it aside, sending it careening in the other direction, completely away from any of the Masters. Berserker found himself contemplating how he wanted to approach this battle. He was able to get in close to the Lancer because the man had been overconfident and battle hungry. On the other hand getting in close to a Saber might be considered suicidal, especially since he had no idea what type of weapon that wind was concealing. Oh well, he would have to do this the fun way he supposed.

He grinned as he let another two kunai fall into his hands, but this time he held onto them. His grin widened as he saw Saber narrow her eyes at the unusual weapons. She probably thought he was some sort of Assassin. However, she was going to be in for quite the surprise. This would be fun.

* * *

Saber could only feel confusion as the Servant before her let another two of his strange knives fall into his hands. The knives were suited for Assassin, but some sort of instinct was screaming at her that this man was definitely not the Servant of the shadows. He was too bright and eye-catching in his vivid colors for one, and she had heard from Shirou that he was able to fight the Lancer head on. That shouldn’t be possible for the Assassin class. Unfortunately she couldn’t think of any other plausible class that he could belong to. She knew Archer and Lancer, and he probably wasn’t a Rider as he had yet to reveal any sort of mount even when faced with a battle between Servants. Caster perhaps? Although how he was so physically strong was a mystery if he was. She had completely dismissed the Berserker class from her mind. Her experience had her fighting a mad dog that had needed to be put down. Not some sort of cocky smartass who was able to deduce that she was a Saber simply from her involuntary answer that she held a blade.

She tensed as he crouched into some sort of strange form, and then she had no time for speculative thoughts anymore because he had finally brought the battle in close. He was standing a good ten feet away and then he was right in front of her. She was able to block his initial strike he made with his strange knife that was aimed for her throat, and raised a gauntleted arm to parry his other knife. However, she was not expecting him to leap into a roundhouse kick from such close quarters and paid for it with a stinging jaw as she flew backwards, temporarily seeing spots.

That strength was somewhat maddening. He probably hadn’t even kicked her as hard as he could have, and he still sent her flying. What type of Servant was he?

“Not bad Saber-chan. But if I had to rate you right now, I’d say Lancer might be the better fighter, he takes initiative and knows his weaknesses. Can you only fight with your blade and armor?”

She felt a spark of rage at his assessment of the skills that she had spent many years and battles forging, and the intimate way he called her, even if it was only her class. She would just have to show him that she was not someone to be trifled with.

* * *

Rin was desperately trying to figure out what type of Servant the blonde haired man was during the brief exchange that Saber and him had just had. Even if he was Assassin, he shouldn’t have the strength to send someone from the Saber class flying the way he had and he probably wasn’t Rider or Caster either. He hadn’t really used any spells nor any mount to fight as of yet. She had briefly seen him go toe to toe with Lancer, and if she had to classify what he fought with it would be some sort of odd martial art, with the blades merely being an extension of that.

She had also been discreetly studying the other Master, who was watching the proceeding fight with interest. Rin decided to take a gamble. She needed information, and the girl would probably give her some, even if she had to be manipulated into it.

“What an interesting Servant you summoned, I don’t know if it’s suicidal or just plain stupid to consider fighting a Saber class in close quarters like he just did.”

The girl made a non-committal noise at Rin’s comment, but said nothing else. Rin felt a bit frustrated at being openly ignored, but continued on regardless.

“Does he always fight like that?”

The girl then glanced in her direction, and the cool gaze that was upon her face didn’t really fit the eyes of a child. Rin felt herself involuntarily shivering at the predatory gleam that she thought she could detect within the little Master’s eyes.

Then the girl was once more watching the standoff between Servants, although she actually spoke to Rin this time.

“I think it might be rather sad that the Tohsaka head needs to be so obvious in her digging for information.”

Rin felt a bit of rage spike from that comment, but was able to plaster on a pleasant smile for the girl even if she wanted to blast her with a spell.

“Well since you saw through the charade rather easily, why don’t I cut to the chase? What type of Servant did you summon, and who are you representing in this War?”

The girl once more turned her attention to Rin, and a predatory smile grew over her face to match the gleam in her eye. It appeared that Rin now had the interest of the girl.

“Oh, I think I’ll withhold the Class for now. Suffice to say I was pretty surprised when I summoned him, but I think it might have worked out for the best. As to my representation, my full name is Illyasviel von Einzbern, a pleasure to meet you, Oba-san.”

Rin thought she might have strangled the kid for the Oba-san comment, but held herself in check. So the brat was a representative of the Einzberns? That meant she at the very least understood the ritual fairly intimately. It also meant that she may have summoned a pretty terrifying Servant to fight for her. She supposed she would have to keep an eye on this Illyasviel and her Servant. Information was the key to winning this war and her impromptu team up with Shirou would have to suffice for a sort of added protection for now. Hopefully Saber would be able to put down this mysterious Servant. If she couldn’t then her own insurance would probably be able to accomplish the task.

* * *

Archer was currently standing about a mile away from the battlefield that Saber and the newcomer had decided to fight at. He was watching the proceedings with an arrow loosely knocked and ready to let fly, but the blond haired male Servant had him on edge. It seemed that Akasha was not quite done toying with him. He knew that Illya had summoned Berserker for the war that he had participated in, but the male squaring off against Saber was definitely  _ not _ a Madness Enhanced Heracles. 

It seemed that the timeline had been goofed, or something else had happened, but as of right now he had no idea what kind of Servant Illya had summoned. Surely it couldn’t be Berserker, he had encountered the man and he was intuitive enough to predict that he was an Archer, merely from seeing two moves that showcased his accuracy. He had also been able to manipulate Saber into revealing that she had a blade sheathed  _ in  _ wind instead  _ of _ wind. Whatever class he was, Archer was highly doubtful that he would be able to survive a blow from a Broken Phantasm that was shot by an Archer class. Until Rin gave the signal for him to fire, he was content to observe the battle and let it play its course, if only to gain a little more information on his enemy. After all, Rin had taught him long ago that information was the key to victory.

* * *

Berserker felt his excitement grow. His little exchange with Saber had taught him a few things. For one she wasn’t quite as fast as him or Lancer, but her technique made up for it, and she was able to predict his movements, up to a point. 

That led to another thing he had learned, if he did something unpredictable she would be caught slightly flat-footed and pay the price as could be seen with the kick that he landed. He also knew for sure that she wasn’t lying about the wind that was sheathing her blade. He still didn’t know what type of blade it was, but he could sweat the small stuff later. He supposed it was time to kick this battle up another notch, but before he could do anything, Saber decided to take the fight to him.

She exploded from her spot, kicking up dust and dirt, and Berserker was barely able to cross his kunai in time to block the overhead strike she sent his way. He grit his teeth as he felt the jarring of his arms from the attack. He was pretty sure that Saber wasn’t quite on his level of strength, but her technique made up for it. Grim determination shone on her face and the battle began anew. 

He was able to keep up fairly well, even if he didn’t know the precise length of her blade and the two became a frenzy of slashes, thrusts, and parries. Unfortunately, he was beginning to accumulate a few minor cuts because of his misjudging the length of her blade, but he decided that it was time to end his little reconnaissance bid.

He surprised her again by lashing out with a kick to her stomach as he blocked another strike and sent her sliding back once more from the force. She grunted, more in surprise than in pain most likely as her armor probably absorbed most of that attack. Her eyes then narrowed as she thought she could hear a faint hum in the air.

Berserker grinned as he felt his prana flow into the blades, converting it into a thin wind that would be able to slice into almost anything. 

“Not bad, Saber-chan, not bad at all.”

She glared once more at his little nickname for her, and he just grinned wider.

“I believe that I had you on the ropes during that last engagement, you were desperate enough to put space between us once more.”

Berserker lightly twirled one of his kunai away from his body, being careful not to cut himself with his own technique. He decided that he had enough showboating, and flung his right hand kunai toward Saber once more. She didn’t bother to block, merely tilting her head to the side as it flew by harmlessly past her cheek. At least that was what she expected it to do. Instead it had left a deep gash on the cheek. She couldn’t help but be a little unnerved by this turn of events. She was  _ sure _ she had been able to dodge the projectile, so why had it still wounded her?

“It’s funny, the thing about wind as an offensive weapon is that it doesn’t push or crush, it slices.”

Berserker relished the look of understanding that passed onto Saber’s face as he let another kunai drop into his hand. 

“It looks like the both of us use bladed weapons that are hard to judge by sight alone, shall we continue Saber-chan?”

* * *

He didn’t allow her any time to think, immediately launching into his attack. Now it was Saber that was on the defensive, she wasn’t able to judge his blade’s length, and she obviously couldn’t see it. The two were a flurry of metal clashing against metal, and wind against wind. It was only then that Saber began to realize something. Something that made her even angrier than when he had compared her to Lancer and found her lacking. 

He was toying with her. 

She was able to keep up with him, but it was obvious that he had the stamina and strength to potentially outlast her, he wanted this to become a battle of attrition and wasn’t taking her as seriously as she was taking him.

Saber’s rage had the opposite effect that it would have on most people, instead of clouding her judgment, she felt her mind clear, and she was able to predict his blades’ movements once more, but suddenly she felt a strike against her armor, causing her eyes to widen. She knew she had blocked his attack from the appropriate distance, but it had still struck her, even if it was only on her shoulder armor.

With a mighty effort, she pushed him away, and he went skidding to a halt. His ever present grin still adorning his face, and Saber realized that he was somewhat amused by her.

“Well now, you figured it out sooner than I had expected you to.”

Saber narrowed her eyes as she voiced her deduction aloud.

“Your blade isn’t a fixed length is it? You can control how long and how short it becomes.”

The man gave a little nod of his head in acknowledgement of her accusation.

“That’s the correct answer, Saber-chan. This is the difference between a blade of wind and a wind concealed blade. I’m not limited to any one length, and the sharpness…”

He then flung a kunai at a random tree, and Saber watched in begrudging fascination as it sliced clean through the tree, and then the next one after that, and the one after that as well, before splitting a rock and stopping halfway.

Saber glanced at the others who were gathered, and was surprised to note a look of shock reflected in this strange Servant’s Master’s face as well. Did she not know all of her Servant’s abilities like Shirou? Had he not revealed this skill to her yet? Whatever the case, it was somewhat terrifying. He was able to create an invisible blade, sharp enough to slice rock, and make it as long or short as he wanted it. She was beginning to suspect that despite his monstrous strength he was in fact of the Assassin class. If an Assassin had this type of weapon in his artillery, then he was more dangerous than she had first assumed. Perhaps she should end this fight with her Noble Phantasm? 

No, she would save that for another time. For now, she was confident she could predict all of his moves. Her eyes were able to keep up with him. She would just have to adjust her own movements accordingly.

“As you can see the sharpness is unquestionable.”

Saber prepared herself as  _ another _ blade fell into the Servant’s hand. Did he have an unlimited amount of those in his arsenal or something? She would have to tread carefully if that was the case, especially with his wind technique. 

For a moment neither moved and then the battle was joined once more.

* * *

Archer had felt his jaw drop at that blonde’s display. What an interesting skill to have. He already knew that the kunai the blonde was wielding were just normal scraps that could easily be replaceable if one found the right type of blacksmith, but apparently he was able to increase their sharpness. What a terrifying ability, and if he had read the two Servants fighting lips right, he was able to decide how long or short the wind was. If he hadn’t been summoned as the Archer class, he would almost think that this Servant was, but now he was leaning more towards Assassin. An ability like that certainly fit the bill, an invisible blade that was undetectable to even his eyesight, and with it he could even take on the Saber class head on with his abnormal strength. After all no matter how skilled Saber was, she needed to have at least some sort of idea as to what the length of the weapon she was fighting. 

Archer made an executive decision. He had been waiting for Rin’s signal, but it seemed he would have to take some matters into his own hands. He tensed his muscles as he began to draw his bow. The whiskered Servant was in his sights, when a voice spoke briefly behind him.

“I’d prefer it if you didn’t do that.”

Archer whirled around as he took in the shadow of another form, but apparently he wasn’t quick enough. His next vision was one of darkness.

* * *

Berserker was having more fun than he probably should have been, all things considered. Even though the battle had been somewhat tough, he had been enjoying messing with Saber’s mind, enough that her technique was beginning to slip somewhat. She probably didn’t realize it yet, but he had been subtly stringing her along, revealing a few of his cards, making her wonder about which particular class he was the entire fight. Her frustration was beginning to show within her swordplay.

He nimbly dodged another thrust and sent one of his own; frowning in annoyance as it merely glanced off the armor that she was wearing. Whatever that armor was made of, or blessed with, was enough to actually be able to stop his blade, which was almost impossible. It was the only reason he hadn’t defeated Saber quite yet. He could already see her beginning to tire, while he still felt as fresh as he had when they had started. He didn’t really want to beat her by attrition, but it seemed that he would be doing so after all. 

The grin that had been ever present the entire time he had been fighting Saber now disappeared. He supposed he was doing her a dishonor, to be holding back like he was, so he would have to try some sort of different form of attack. He quickly tossed another kunai, no wind infused within it this time, merely to maneuver her into an optimal place for what he was about to do. He quickly formed a Rasengan and caught her blade on his other kunai before slamming it into her abdomen area just as he had done to Lancer earlier that night. 

Just like Lancer Saber went flying from the force of the attack, eliciting a startled “Saber!” from the red headed student. However, Berserker didn’t move from his spot as he became still. That wasn’t able to stop Lancer when he was in Sage Mode, and it probably wouldn’t stop Saber with her armor. He closed his eyes in concentration, slowly allowing the change of Sage Mode to come over him. Once that was done he was able to feel everyone’s presence once more. 

He found it interesting that there was another Servant making their way steadily toward his position, but the sedate pace that they were going gave him another five minutes. He also felt another Servant stationed around a mile from his position. He would have to deal with those two when he was done here. It seemed that his prediction was correct and Saber was shakily supporting herself with her sword, which was still covered in wind.

“Nice job Saber-chan, you survived a pretty powerful attack just now.”

Saber narrowed her eyes at him. 

“What was that? It couldn’t have been a Noble Phantasm, but it was definitely made of condensed prana.”

Berserker merely grinned at Saber’s inquiry. Even looking a bit worse for wear she still retained a regal look. 

“It’s actually a combination of od and mana, I respect you enough to tell you that much.”

Saber eyed him warily as she took note of his eyes which were currently closed, and was that mascara on his eyes? When he opened his eyes once more, she was met with a strange yellowish iris as opposed to the blue that she had become accustomed to. His pupils had also dilated in the way that made his eyes vaguely amphibian.

Before she could make heads or tails of this change, he was upon her again, this time without his kunai in hand. Berserker was relentless in his attack, and he could tell Saber was surprised by his change of tactics. 

“Sorry to say, but you’re kind of outclassed because of the technique I’m using at the moment. I need to at least defeat you within the next couple of minutes, before the other Servant that’s approaching us catches up to this place.”

Saber wasn’t able to respond to his sorrowful tone as he blocked her blade with his  _ bare hands _ . What an insane way of fighting. 

Berserker continued his assault, only to be blocked again and again by Saber’s blade. Finally he decided to be a little cheap, and caught Saber’s blade in his hand. Curling his fingers around it, he was surprised to feel at least a bit of a cut form, even though that should be almost impossible due to the current form he was in. To be able to wound him even when he was in Sage Mode, the blade must have been her Noble Phantasm. 

He didn’t ponder this for long, because Saber seemed somewhat shocked that he had actually had the audacity to catch her blade. Taking advantage of this, he finally landed a clean punch. Even though he wanted to end this as quickly as possible, he still didn’t really want to kill Saber just yet. Her skill with a blade was too admirable for that. That was the reason she was once again blasted away as the punch connected to her abdomen and he let go of her blade.

He felt the blood running down his hand, but ignored it in favor of observing Saber as the dust cleared and she was spotted in a crumpled heap on the floor. The student once more yelled a protest, but both Illya and the Archer’s master seemed somewhat shocked that he had just blasted Saber away with his bare hands. Then Ilya began to chuckle, before she devolved into a maniacal laugh, making the other two Master’s slightly edge away from her.

“That was amazing! You were able to beat her without even trying!”

Berserker felt a smile grace his features as he let go of Sage Mode, the other Servant would be here soon and he wanted that to be a surprise for whoever faced him.

“Even without using your Noble Phantasm you defeated Saber in close range combat! Bare handed! I bet that’s never happened before!”

Berserker just rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as he took the praise from his Master and the student rushed to his Servant. The other Master was now regarding him quite warily before she spoke to him.

“The ability with od and mana, are you some sort of super Caster? It doesn’t matter. I’m taking you out now, before you become a problem.”

She then closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, but a frown crossed over her face as soon as she did. 

Shirou’s happy exclamation drew their attention back to Saber and Berserker was surprised to see Saber valiantly making her way to her feet. He was sure that a Sage Mode enhanced punch would at least knock her out for a few minutes. Apparently she was made of some pretty strong stuff if she was able to remain conscious even after the beating that she had taken from him. What a troublesome opponent, although she probably wouldn’t be able to still fight at the level she had been because of the attack. Berserker was beginning to think he would have to Rasenshuriken these Heroic Spirits to keep them down.

He waited calmly as she crossed over to square off against him once more.

“That move, you’ve taken the surrounding prana from the environment and used it to boost your abilities, I thought you must have for sure been Assassin after you had showcased your wind blade, but I think you might actually be a Caster.”

Berserker had opened his mouth to rebuke both claims, but someone beat him to it. Someone whose voice hadn’t been there a second ago, and one that Berserker could recognize.

“Unfortunately, you’re wrong on both counts.”

Everyone turned their attention to the figure slowly walking towards them in the moonlight, his raven black hair and black cloak with red clouds swaying in the cool breeze that had picked up during the fight. As he approached his eyes were closed, but Berserker knew. He really did not want to meet this particular person, he should have realized that if he had been summoned, then perhaps others could be as well.

Finally the person stopped in front of the others and slowly opened his eyes to reveal the blood red with spinning tomoe.

“Unfortunately for you, I was summoned as the Caster class for this war and have already met Assassin.”

He then turned his attention to Rin.

“Please refrain from trying to contact the Servant that was camping out on a roof observing the battle.”

It was then Berserker’s turn to be put under that piercing red gaze.

“It has been a long time, Naruto-kun.”

Uchiha Itachi had been summoned under the Caster class for the Holy Grail War.

Naruto could only feel one thought run through his mind at the casual revelation in which Itachi had delivered.

_ Well fuck. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, it took me a bit longer to get this out than I thought it would, but hopefully I'll be posting the other chapters a bit faster. I decided to go for a completely original A/N for this chapter as the one I made for FFN would make no sense on here. It's been fun to go through and edit these chapters and see how I've progressed as an author from when I first posted these. Hopefully this is as enjoyable here as it has been on FFN and hopefully I can post these a bit faster within the coming weeks. I'd like at least one a week, maybe two if I'm in an editing mood. 
> 
> Until then, please leave a kudo or comment. I'm not much for responding to them, but I read everything and it's always nice to see what people think. Let's see how this work in general does on this site. Well, until next time!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fate/Stay Night. They belong to Kishimoto Masashi and Type-Moon respectively. Please support the official release!


	4. First Night (end)

“Well fuck.”

Illya turned her attention to Berserker as she heard him utter that curse. He had his eyes locked on the newly revealed Caster and seemed tenser than she had ever seen him yet. Granted she had only really met him a few hours ago, but all the other Servants didn’t seem to faze her own.

She turned her attention back to the Caster, who had dropped a name quite familiarly with her Servant. Were they a part of each other’s legends perhaps? How else would the man know what to call her Servant otherwise?

Illya took the time of the silent standoff to really commit Caster’s appearance to memory. 

His raven hair was done in an elegant ponytail, and the soft features of his face were hampered somewhat by two distinct worry lines. His frame was lithe, but she could definitely see wired muscle hidden beneath the cloak that he was wearing. The high collar hid the bottom half of his face from her position, but the cloak itself was rather distinct, a black cloak with red clouds adorning the entire setup. She also noticed that the man had a headband very similar to the one her own Servant sported, though his had a slash through the mark on it.

She thought that perhaps the two were enemies when they were still alive and had encountered each other then. It would explain why one had a slash mark through their headband, which seemed to be some kind of identification.

Before she could say anything, the Tohsaka heir spoke up.

“What do you mean you dealt with Archer!? Even if you were an Assassin, once you attacked your Presence Concealment wouldn’t have been as effective! And you’re a Caster! How did you get the drop on him!?”

Illya was rather curious about this point as well. Even if he was a Servant, to get the drop on another Servant so easily wasn’t an easy feat. However, it seemed that neither she nor Tohsaka would be getting any answers at this time as Caster continued to gaze toward Berserker.

“I did not expect you of all people to be summoned into this war Naruto-kun.”

Illya shivered at the soft voice in which Caster spoke. Although it was barely above a whisper, the monotonous delivery of his words made Illya on edge. It seemed that at being addressed once more, Berserker was able to snap out of his funk, and a wry grin formed on his face.

“Well, I honestly wasn’t expecting to see you here either. And you’re the Caster class? That’s kinda terrifying, Itachi.”

Illya was currently racking her brain trying to identify which Heroic Spirit was named Itachi, but she wasn’t able to think of one. She prided herself on knowledge of heroes long past, but she had never heard of an Itachi. It seemed she would have to do some research for when she arrived back at her headquarters.

“As much as it has been a pleasure to meet you again, Naruto-kun, I don’t think that I’ll be able to let you go.”

Illya chilled at those words. This Caster was fresh and confident enough in his abilities to confront the Saber and the Berserker, though he didn’t know that, directly. He had already defeated Archer and it seemed he was now gunning for her own Servant as he had not acknowledged Saber yet.

“You there! Servant Caster!”

Caster turned his attention onto Saber, who was now standing proud once more after the blow she had taken from Berserker.

“Why have you interrupted our fight!? And if this Servant isn’t Assassin, then what class would he fall under?”

Caster merely smiled softly although it didn’t quite reach his eyes, and as the moonlight played across his face Illya finally noticed that Caster had a set of eyes that even by Servant standards were distinctly strange. Deep blood red with three tomoe were reflected in the light of the moon and Ilya became even more wary of this new player in the game. A Caster with Mystic Eyes? That might be a bit of a problem. One she would nip in the bud now.

“Berserker!”

The other Masters and Saber all seemed surprised by her voice and seemed even more surprised when Berserker answered.

“Yes, Illya-hime?”

Before Illya could say anything else, Tohsaka exploded.

“Wait a goddamn minute! You’re telling me that you’re under the Berserker class!?”

She pointed an accusatory finger towards Berserker, emphasizing her displeasure.

“That makes no sense! Berserker’s are affected with Mad Enhancement, why are you so lucid if you are under that class!?”

It seemed as though the Tohsaka heir was going to continue her tirade, but was cut off by the Caster.

“Ah, so that was the class you were summoned under. That might be somewhat troublesome in the future.”

Caster was the epitome of calm, in contrast to Tohsaka’s anger and Onii-chan and Saber’s surprise. He had merely closed his eyes as if in acceptance of the situation, despite the fact that Berserker was capable of such lucid thinking.

Slowly he opened his eyes, and they seemed to glow menacingly in the night.

“Illya-hime, don’t make eye contact!”

Illya understood what her Servant was trying to say and avoided looking at Caster’s face. Instead she was staring at his feet, trying vainly to think of a way to get out of this mess.

“Shirou!”

Illya glanced over to the other two Master’s and noticed that they had been reduced to staring into space. Saber was fretting over her master and was now glaring at Caster angrily. 

“What did you do!?”

Caster seemed utterly unconcerned by Saber’s anger, he had resumed gazing at Berserker, who was steadfastly not looking in the vicinity of Caster’s face.

“I’m surprised, but I suppose the Magic Resistance of the Saber class really is something frightening if it can withstand my genjutsu.”

Saber seemed to be physically restraining herself from attacking an unknown enemy if the hand clenched around her arm was anything to go by. However, it looked like the dam finally broke and with a war cry she blasted toward Caster. 

Illya watched in amazement as Caster merely dodged and weaved his way through all of Saber’s strikes. His eyes seemed to follow her perfectly, as though he could perfectly predict Saber’s movements.

“Damn, this really is Itachi.”

Illya felt herself cock her head in confusion at her Servant’s comment. She was rather regretful of revealing his class for all to hear, but she had been in the heat of the moment and had been preparing to order him to defeat Caster as quickly as possible.

“Why are you so worried about Caster?”

Illya continued to look on at the battle that Saber and Caster were raging. It seemed that Caster was able to stay at least one step ahead of Saber, but he would be hit eventually. Berserker glanced at her as she voiced her query and graced her with a wry grin.

“I know it’s rather difficult for you to keep up with this level of fight, but I’ll run it down for you. Saber is trying to hit Itachi with all of her technique, something she was able to at least partially do to me, even though she never got anything clean, I still got a bit beat up, right?”

Illya nodded her consent to that as Berserker paused. When he had her silent understanding he continued.

“Well Saber just can’t seem to hit him. The reason is because of Itachi’s Mystic Eyes, the Sharingan. One of its basic abilities is to allow those who wield them to perceive time in an exaggerated manner, letting the user counter almost before someone attacks. I don’t think Saber will be able to land a hit on him.”

Illya took everything that Berserker had just said and adjusted her original plans. 

“Right then. I was going to order you to fight anyway. I want you to assist Saber!”

Berserker gave one of his half bows at the order.

“As you command, Illya-hime.”

Illya sighed as he blurred into action, she really needed to get him to stop calling her that.

* * *

Saber was having quite a bit of trouble with her current opponent. Unlike the newly revealed Berserker, he seemed content to twist and turn around her blade, despite the fact that it should have been invisible to him. She noticed that he was consistently dodging it by a hair’s breadth. Her frustration was beginning to boil over and she felt herself slipping a bit in technique. 

Suddenly, Caster’s eyes snapped to the side as he once more dodged a thrust. He raised his hand quickly and caught Berserker’s outstretched leg before throwing him toward her. Saber could only be surprised before Berserker smashed into her and the two went flying before landing in a crumpled heap. 

She was slightly annoyed at Caster’s tactics. He hadn’t blocked Berserker’s kick, instead he had redirected it so that it became an offensive technique to attack her. Sighing, she scrambled to her feet. Apparently all the Servants of this war were out to annoy her. She almost missed Iskander.

Caster merely regarded the two of them coolly as Berserker also got to his feet, she thought she heard him mutter something about a “Sharingan.”

She decided to ignore his mutterings as she once more concentrated on Caster, though she still kept herself aware of Berserker.

“Hey Saber-chan.”

Saber twitched at that accursed nickname, but she glanced in his direction anyway and was surprised that he was steadfastly looking at Caster’s feet. Puzzled, she couldn’t help but ask, “What exactly are you doing?”

Berserker grimaced at the question before he decided to answer.

“Caster has a set of Mystic Eyes called the Sharingan. It allows him to instantly trap someone in an illusion. That’s probably what happened to those two Masters over there.”

Saber began to understand why she wasn’t trapped in an illusion and Shirou had been. Since she had been summoned under the Saber class she had a high Magic Resistance, it meant that his attacks with magic were greatly reduced when fighting her.

“I see, what a troublesome opponent.”

Berserker snorted at her comment.

“Saber-chan you don’t know the half of it. This guy is stupid broken. He was probably qualified to be a Heroic Spirit at the age of 13 and didn’t die until his twenties. Why the hell did he have to be summoned as a Caster?”

Even though Caster’s expression remained fairly stoic, he seemed somewhat amused by Berserker’s statement.

“Oh? If I remember correctly, you were able to save the entire world before you were 17, Naruto-kun. It’s quite flattering that you put me on such a high pedestal.”

Berserker sighed at Caster’s comment before he threw a suggestion to Saber.

“Hey, I don’t really have a grudge against you so let’s say we team up and take this guy out? He’s one of those people that I really don’t want to deal with.”

Saber considered Berserker’s suggestion for a moment before she gave a tentative nod in acceptance.

“Very well. I shall fight alongside you for this one battle. Consider this  _ your _ free pass.”

Berserker’s grin became fox-like as he answered.

“Oh, don’t be like that, Saber-chan. We could be pretty good friends once we go back to trying to kill each other.”

Despite herself, Saber felt her lips twitch in amusement at that. Perhaps Berserker had at least a few good qualities. No matter the case, she was now going to go after Caster with everything she had barring her Noble Phantasm.

* * *

Berserker felt himself tensing as he gathered his prana for the assault on Itachi. Even with Saber’s help, it would still be very difficult to get a clean hit on him and the fact that he couldn’t look directly into his eyes didn’t help either. 

He glanced at Saber out of the corner of his eye, and was satisfied to see that she had a grim countenance as she took a stance once more. Berserker then turned his full attention to Itachi’s feet once more. This was going to be annoying since he couldn’t look at his eyes.

“It seems that you two have decided to form a short alliance to defeat me. Very well then, show me what you’ve got, Naruto-kun.”

Berserker exploded from his spot sending up dirt and dust and startling Saber. He got behind Itachi in an instant and flipped to add extra momentum to a devastating axe kick. 

However, Itachi spun around just as fast, and redirected his kick once more so that he stumbled a bit after his landing. Thinking quickly he fell forward and executed a one handed forward handspring, twisting in the air to block two thrown kunai with his own that he had just let drop into his hand.

Suddenly, Saber was the one by Itachi’s side and she was in the middle of a devastating side slash when Itachi merely flipped over the blade. Damn it, his Sharingan could definitely see Saber’s sword’s length so one of her strengths with that weapon was useless here. Luckily Saber was not deterred and adjusted herself so that she attempted an upward slash toward Itachi as he was hanging in the air.

Itachi’s counter was swift and he brought another two kunai to bear the brunt of the slash, but he must have misjudged Saber’s strength because he was sent flying into the air. Berserker was surprised at this, but then noticed Itachi rapidly flipping through hand signs as he continued to climb in height.

“Shit! Saber-chan, dodge!”

Saber didn’t question his suggestion and instinctively rolled out of the way just as a massive fireball fell from the sky. She came to a halt as the inferno scorched the earth where she had just been mere seconds ago. It looked like she was going to thank Berserker, but her eyes widened as she stared behind him.

“Not bad, Naruto-kun, but can you escape this jutsu?”

Berserker’s eyes widened as he looked behind him. Another Itachi had reached out and grasped his shoulder. Berserker thought quickly and lashed out with a kick that sent the clone flying away, right before it exploded, lighting up the night with light and sound.

Berserker jumped over to Saber’s position as Itachi landed lightly on his feet. That bastard could really plan way too far in advance. He had  _ wanted _ Saber to smack him into the air, to give himself enough time to get off a fire technique, while simultaneously creating an exploding clone to attack Berserker. Shit, this guy was just plain scary.

“It seems that I am taking the two of you too lightly.”

Lightly? The bastard pulls off that kind of combo attack and he wasn’t even serious yet? Oh who was he kidding, Itachi was a beast no doubt about it. And with Caster’s prana reserves he could probably run around them all night without breaking a sweat.

Berserker once more glanced at his temporary ally. She seemed to be slightly winded, but was recovering alright. Her grip on her blade tightened as she prepared to once more attack Itachi, but Berserker had another idea.

Instantly a clone came into existence by his side and Berserker formed a Rasengan. The clone then began to add the wind element to the mix. Not enough to make a Rasenshuriken, but enough to make it possible for him to land a pretty heavy blow if he could hit, but that wasn’t the point.

“I’ll distract him, you land a blow if the opportunity presents itself.”

He had only whispered it to Saber and had turned so that Itachi wasn’t able to lip read his intentions. Saber was busy staring down Itachi while her attention seemed somewhat taken by the jutsu in his hand.

Before she could object, he took off, his clone faithfully following after him. Just before he reached Itachi he stopped and let his clone continue to fly forward with a battle cry. Itachi and his clone battled it out for a moment, but he then intervened with his wind infused Rasengan.

Itachi saw the blow coming, but his clone got around him and grasped on tightly in a hold. Berserker slammed the wind infused Rasengan into Itachi, and felt vaguely satisfied as he felt it connect and both Itachi and his clone exploded from the force. However, the grin that was creeping across his face turned to a frown. Why did Itachi explode?

He then heard the unmistakable clang of metal on metal and spun around to see Itachi sent flying from another slash of Saber’s. He watched a bit on the detached side as Itachi automatically righted himself and landed gracefully. 

“A good effort, Naruto-kun, but you need to do better than that.”

Berserker prepared himself to do just that before he realized something, something that he had not wanted to do the entire fight. In his satisfaction at getting a perceived hit he had let his guard down and looked into Itachi’s eyes. The three tomoe lazily spun as if to mock him.

* * *

Saber couldn’t understand why Berserker had suddenly frozen as he locked eyes with Caster, but then remembered his explanation to Caster’s Mystic Eyes. Apparently it worked on a Servant almost instantly as well, even if Berserker had shit for Magic Resistance. Saber could only turn her attention to Caster once more, wondering how she would be able to defeat an opponent that seemed to know all her moves before she made them and could apparently see the length of her blade even though it was shrouded in wind.

“It seems that our fight has become one on one once more. I think it’s time to finish this.”

Saber wasn’t sure what Caster meant by that, but he closed his eyes and if the prana that he was gathering was anything to go by, whatever technique he was about to use was devastating. Saber could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand up under the ominous pressure, but remained resolute before her foe. She would not back down from this challenge. 

However, before Caster could unleash his technique he tilted his head to the side as if curious, then suddenly he jumped out of the way as a rain of swords fell from the sky. It seemed that Archer had finally decided to join them as he dropped to the ground, red jacket fluttering in the breeze.

“Who the hell are you?”

Archer’s blunt question pulled Caster’s attention, who had apparently decided to forgo whatever technique he was about to use. Saber was rather glad for that, it had given her the same feeling that Lancer’s Gáe Bolg had before he had unleashed it.

Before Caster could answer, there was a loud thump. The three Servants turned their attention to Berserker and were surprised to see that Illya had walked right up to him and kicked him in the shin as hard as she could. She was currently hopping up and down on one foot, but Berserker’s eyes once more focused on the battlefield and he sighed in content.

“Damn, he got me. Who got me out?”

Before any of the Servants could answer, Illya piped up.

“I did you idiot Servant! Who gets trapped in an illusion anyway!?”

Berserker seemed a bit perplexed, but then an amused grin spread across his features as he watched Illya hop up and down clutching her leg.

“Did you kick me?”

Illya merely glared at Berserker and his good mood. Saber was beginning to get a headache from the two’s antics. First they were her enemy, then her allies, and now they were apparently a comedic duo. She glanced at her fellow Servants and noted that Archer was also sporting an amused smirk, though it looked slightly condescending, while Caster remained as stoic as ever. 

“Well then, shall we finish this?”

Everyone tensed once more at Berserker’s words and the three Servants once again faced Caster. 

Caster appeared to merely look at them rather apathetically. Before either Saber or Berserker could do anything, Archer had already projected his black and white blades and flung them toward Caster while charging forward.

Caster merely side-stepped the attack and brought another of those strange knives that he and Berserker used to counter the red Servant.

“I see, an Archer then.”

Archer’s eye twitched as though annoyed by something.

“Yeah, I’m the guy that you dumped back about a mile ago. I was stuck in that stupid illusion of unconsciousness until I figured out that pain can break through your illusions. So I merely had to concentrate enough to break a finger.”

Caster’s eyebrows rose slightly at Archer’s revelation. 

“So you must have some sort of insight skill if you could deduce that from only being under the technique once.”

Archer’s smirk widened evilly as he lashed out with a foot trying to catch Caster off guard, but Caster merely allowed himself to be pushed back, taking no real damage from the kick. However, Archer’s smirk never left him as he then explained.

“The interesting things about the two blades I threw at you is that they always are attracted to each other.”

Caster’s eyes widened imperceptibly as he realized Archer’s implications and the two blades came roaring back and sliced into him cleanly. Archer’s victorious smirk graced his features for a second, but then it slowly descended into a puzzled frown.

“It seems that what you perceive as reality is not actually real.”

The three Servants spun around to meet another Caster as the one behind them wavered and faded out of existence.

“What did you do?”

Archer voiced the question that the other two were thinking, but Caster merely remained silent. Then Berserker slapped his palm to his head.

“God damnit, is this what it’s like to fight me when I use clones?”

Saber couldn’t understand Berserker’s outburst, but Archer seemed to have a slowly dawning comprehension.

“When did he cast it? And how did he get the Saber class ensnared?”

Berserker merely sighed as he apparently broke his finger and then faded just like the last Caster did. Archer copied the action and the results were the same, Saber considered what had happened for a moment, before copying the two.

* * *

Berserker awoke with a start and realized that the three Masters and one of the other three Servants were accounted for. Saber, Illya, and the two other Masters were all staring into space, each in their respective starting positions before the fight with Itachi had commenced. That was all a genjutsu? He hated fighting Itachi.

Soon enough, Saber also snapped back into reality and paused to apparently look around incredulously. 

“We were fighting in an illusion that entire time!?”

Berserker shrugged as he moved towards his own Master, Itachi hadn’t popped back up, so he was probably long gone by now. He wondered where Archer was camping at.

As if hearing his mental call the red clad Servant appeared with a swish of his jacket, looking decidedly sour.

“I hate fighting illusion users.”

Berserker shared a sympathetic gesture with Archer, while Saber still seemed confused.

“I don’t understand, my Magic Resistance is absurdly high, how did he ensnare me within an illusion cast with magic.”

Berserker rolled his eyes, but didn’t answer. Caster did it because he, Uchiha fucking Itachi, was probably the best genjutsu user to ever grace his own time period. If Itachi wanted to put someone in a genjutsu, he would put them in a god damn genjutsu.

Archer’s sour look made him feel at least a little better. That guy seemed like an okay dude in his book if he was as annoyed with Itachi as Berserker was. Shaking his head, Berserker once more turned his attention to his own Master. Sighing, he placed a hand on her shoulder and sent a jolt of his own od flowing through her. 

Her eyes immediately snapped to his and she glanced around the clearing, obviously still searching for Itachi.

“It’s okay for now Illya-hime, he got away. We were probably under an illusion since the start. We just couldn’t look away fast enough and I had been staring at him for a couple minutes beforehand.”

Illya tilted her head to the side curiously as if trying to figure something out. She voiced her question to Berserker.

“If he had us all in an illusion, why didn’t he just kill our unguarded bodies?”

Berserker could only shrug in reply to his Master’s query.

“I’ve got no idea. Itachi does what he wants to do and heaven help you if you get in the way of his goal.”

Illya seemed to consider his words for a second before nodding her acceptance, though she did cast a glance at the still puzzled Saber who was now in front of Shirou and frowning.

“Was she also under the illusion?”

Berserker nodded as he watched with amusement as Archer studied Rin for a moment before he lifted a leg and promptly kicked her over. The red clad Master landed in a heap, but she was immediately conscious afterwards and seemed to be in the middle of a rant.

“-it doesn’t happen like that! I don’t care how the Berserker was summoned, he’s not supposed to…”

She trailed off as she noticed the others staring at her, and crimson splotches appeared on her cheeks as she noticed that she was on the floor. She then glanced (or glared) at Archer.

“Where the hell were you?”

Archer merely pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

“It seems that the Caster of this war is rather good with illusions. He had all of us under the influence of one before any of us knew it, including Saber.”

Rin seemed shocked by this, but as she opened her mouth to no doubt complain, Archer beat her to the punch.

“And yes I know that Saber’s Magic Resistance should block that, but this guy was just that good. We didn’t even realize we were in an illusion until we ‘killed’ him and that guy over there realized what had happened.”

Archer explained all this and took the wind out of his Master’s sails while Archer pointed in Berserker’s general direction. She seemed to deflate a bit at that, but nodded her acceptance.

In the meantime Saber was still looking uncertainly at her own Master, and Berserker decided to take pity on her.

“You can get him out by either hitting him or disrupting his od with your own. It’s the best way to get someone out of Caster’s illusions.”

Saber merely nodded, but before she could do anything a blade came flying at her Master. Luckily it hit the student with the hilt and he merely flew backwards to sprawl out on the ground. There was then a groan of pain from the prone Master, and Berserker couldn’t help a small chuckle that escaped at Archer’s actions.

Archer had his arm still extended in a beautiful throwing posed and he slowly retracted it to cross his arms.

“Tch. I missed.”

Berserker heard him and shook his head in amusement. Yeah, he might like this guy. However, the night wasn’t done and he might still have to fight both Saber and Archer, but he really didn’t feel like it anymore.

“Hey, Illya-hime.”

Illya turned her attention to him. She had been busy laughing at the red haired Master and the other Master’s predicament.

“Hmm?”

“I think that’s enough for one night, we know almost all the Servants now, with the exception of Rider and Assassin and we now have some idea of what they can do. I’d say it was a pretty productive night, maybe we should take this time to withdraw?”

Illya seemed to think about his suggestion for a second, but in the end nodded her consent.

“Very well, Berserker. Let’s withdraw for now, we can attack more at another time.”

Berserker gave his half bow, before scooping Illya up bridal style eliciting a small squeak from the girl.

“Very well, Illya-hime. Hang on tight.”

Illya barely had time to wrap her arms around his neck before he crouched and took off into the night, alerting the others to his presence one more although it was too late for them to actually do anything. Berserker couldn’t help but let his fox-like grin slip onto his face and gave a jaunty wave at Archer and Saber. It would be fun to fight those two in the future. He hoped he would be a bit more challenged in his rematch with Saber. Now that they both had an idea of what the other was capable of, it would probably be a bit harder. Grinning, Berserker made his way back to Illya’s base of operations at the Einzbern castle. It had been a pretty good night all things considered.

* * *

Archer watched the mysterious Servant and Illya leave and turned his attention back to Rin, who was also watching the duo make their retreat. Her eyes were narrowed in thought as she watched them fade into the night. Archer completely ignored his counterpart as he got up and made his way over to Archer and Rin, Saber dutifully following by his side.

“So did you at least find out what class that guy was?”

Rin nodded stiffly and answered with one word that almost made Archer do a double take.

“Berserker.”

Archer’s eyebrows rose, the only indication of his surprise. While Saber merely accepted this response and his counterpart had probably somehow already heard. Well he was now certain he was in an utterly different universe, if the Caster and the Berserker was any indication. Should he abandon his mission? No, he would still try, it might work and it might not, but he had come too far not to try now that his goal was just within his grasp.

“Well, he certainly seemed surprisingly in his right mind for a Berserker.” 

Rin only shook her head in disgust at Archer’s flippant attitude. Apparently her Servant had to be sarcastic about everything.

“How in the hell did he retain his mind?”

Rin’s question, unfortunately, went unanswered as none of the people gathered could even begin to guess how it had happened. Sighing, she then turned her attention to Emiya. It was time to figure out where to go from here.

* * *

Caster sedately made his way toward the Ryuudou Temple. His scouting mission had been a success and every Servant that he had encountered had shown at least some of their skills tonight. He gazed up at the moon as he climbed the steps that led to the entrance. It had been enjoyable seeing Naruto-kun again, but this was a different matter from the last time that he had been brought back from the dead.

This time the two were on opposing sides and even though he didn’t want to fight Naruto, for the sake of his own wish, it would inevitably lead to a showdown between the two former Shinobi. Even if they were to be fighting to the death, Caster found himself oddly looking forward to the test. Uzumaki Naruto had been a generation defining Hero in his life, and Caster had died before he had gotten the chance to truly test Naruto’s skills. If nothing else he was curious to see how much Naruto had grown since he had returned to the Throne of Heroes after being summoned by the Impure World Resurrection technique.

The moon was bright as he stared into the sky, his Sharingan deactivated for the time being. He was enjoying this facsimile of life again. Not having to feel responsible for any type of peace meant that he would make the most of this second chance that had been allocated to him.

As he came up to the gate that led into the Temple, he noticed a figure casually leaning against the wooden support. Caster nodded a greeting to the figure, their Konoha headband glinting in the moonlight.

“You were right. He’s been summoned. It seems oddly funny that the three of us would be summoned for a single War.”

Caster waited for a moment to let the news sink into the figure’s head. Finally, the figure spoke.

“Well, we’ll just have to see how much he has grown won’t we?”

Caster nodded his consent as Assassin disappeared into the shadows, his Presence Concealment allowing him to hide from Caster’s senses. Caster continued his walk toward the Temple. He glanced at the sky and noticed that it was finally beginning to lighten. It seemed that dawn had finally come. The first night of the Fifth Holy Grail War had come to an end. Caster smiled grimly. There were still six Servants to be killed before his goal was accomplished. He somewhat looked forward to the challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp, here's the next edited chapter of the story. Took me a bit longer to edit because I used Illya's name a ton in this chapter and upon going over the story I realized I had been leaving an L out of her name. I committed to the singular L, but upon further reflection realized that was wrong. 
> 
> As I've done in ff.net, give me all you're guesses for any Servant's that aren't named yet, but it's pretty easy to see who's coming when the stroy has been on that site for such a long time and is much fuirther along. I'm hoping to tweak and prod here in the edits andn eventually get everything back in order on this site and then write a new chapter. It worked for The Looking Glass, so hopefully it works for this.
> 
> Anywho, kudos! comments! I welcome all comers, heres to hopin everyone has enjoyed the story so far, should have another chapter or two up within another week.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fate/Stay Night. They belong to Kishimoto Masashi and Type-Moon respectively. Please support the official release!


	5. First Day

_ There was a mist all around her. She didn’t recognize the layout of the land as anything she had ever heard of before. A great bridge, halfway built with a fierce killing intent permeating the air. She then realized she was within a dome of mirrors. She observed a fairly young blond boy and another black haired boy fighting with another person who was wearing a mask. They were an androgynous sort, so Illya couldn’t tell whether it was a boy or a girl. She tried to peer out of the dome of mirrors, but couldn’t really see anything. _

_ She decided to turn her attention to the fight that was happening and was surprised when she finally figured out who the blond boy resembled. It might have taken her longer to figure that out, because he was such a runt and quite frankly, sucked at combat from what she had seen so far, though the person that appeared to be flickering from mirror to mirror and raining down what appeared to be needles on the two boys did seem like they might be a tough opponent. However, she was sure that the blond runt was her Servant, though he was significantly younger than the confident and trickster-like blond she had met.  _

_ Suddenly, the black haired boy moved in front of the blond haired one, taking a dozen needles that were meant for the blond one. With a jolt Illya recognized that the black haired one had a set of Mystic Eyes similar to the Caster of the War. Could this be Itachi? _

_ Words were exchanged between the two boys. Illya watched on in fascination as a new killing intent began to bubble out of her Servant, one that seemed to dwarf even the one on the bridge that she had felt only moments ago. She observed a toxic red energy begin to emanate from the blond and was startled when he took off after the masked one. She was rather amazed at the feats of strength that he began to showcase as he smashed a mirror with his bare hands before flipping out of the way of the masked person’s attack. _

_ He then proceeded to smash into another mirror, but this time Illya saw that his aim was true and he had managed to land a haymaker on the masked fighter, sending them spiraling out of the dome and collapsing the mirrors. Illya caught up and heard a murmur though she couldn’t quite hear what was being exchanged, but was intrigued when her Servant brought one of those knives he used to bear, appearing ready to strike down the now unmasked person, who still maintained an androgynous look, before the person stopped her Servant from finishing them off, their head snapping in another direction.  _

_ The rest happened in a blur for Illya. Another man was on the bridge that the unmasked person had protected, from what Illya thought was a fistful of lightning. Suddenly there was a mob that showed up that apparently wanted to destroy something. Then the other man was crying in front of her Servant. This was perhaps something that surprised Illya the most. He had seemed like such a hard man, so why would he cry? _

_ Illya watched on as the man caught a knife in his teeth and then proceeded to slaughter the men that had gathered, even with multiple wounds, even with two broken arms, he eventually reached a seedy looking man that had been standing in the back of the group before with a twist of his head the crying man cut off the seedy man’s head. _

* * *

Illya jolted awake. 

The furnishing and exuberance of her own private room within Castle Einzbern in Fuyuki greeted her eyes. Sighing, she brought a hand to press against her eyelids as she closed her eyes trying to replay what had happened. She had heard about this from her father when he had summoned a Servant. Apparently those who were Master and Servant shared dreams of past memories. However, Servants didn’t really need to sleep so the Masters were the ones who took the brunt of this dream cycle. 

Sighing once more, she threw off the covers and got out of bed. She looked out the window of her chambers to see the view of Fuyuki that she had. It seemed like it would be a rather peaceful day within the city. Even though that peace would probably be shattered in the night to come, she supposed it was a good idea to enjoy it while it lasted. 

Stretching languidly she finally called out for her Servant.

“Berserker.”

Berserker appeared in a glow of materialization, giving his half bow in a gesture of greeting.

“Illya-hime, how may I serve you today?”

Illya shook her head, desperately trying to control the blush that she  _ knew  _ was growing at his little pet name for her. Clearing herself of any embarrassment she took charge of the situation.

“Have there been any breaches in the perimeter while I slept?”

Berserker merely shook his head in a negative and Illya sighed in relief. Even though there was an unspoken rule that Masters wouldn’t fight during the day, she wouldn’t put it past others to not follow that, particularly the bastard that was raised by her father. She felt the familiar pang that she had whenever she thought about either of her parents that had gone to fight in the War before, only to never come back.

With a practiced ruthlessness, she crushed her emotions down, but apparently her Servant had seen something on her face.

“Is something the matter, Illya-hime? You look a bit troubled.”

It was Illya’s turn to shake her head in the negative in response to her Servant’s query. She had no time to dwell on the past, her goals should remain in the here and now, it wouldn’t do to chase after ghosts.

“It’s nothing, just thinking about something unpleasant.”

Berserker said nothing, and Ilya took his silence as a gesture of good faith not to pry too much into her affairs. It left her feeling a bit voyeuristic. She had access to some of his memories, but he didn’t really have the same. Before she knew it she was speaking.

“I had a dream last night about you, Berserker.”

Berserker’s grin took on a bit of a teasing quality and Illya felt as if she might not like what was going to be coming next.

“Well as flattering as that is, I’m not really into little girls, Illya-hime.”

Illya felt her face flush in embarrassment at her Servant’s words, and threw a small mirror that she kept on hand for grooming at him. Of course he merely caught it deftly, lazily twirling it around as he amusedly took in his Master’s flustered form.

“Not that kind of dream you idiot! I meant a dream about your past.”

Instantly Berserker’s eyes lost that playful cheer and she was on the receiving end of the calculating gaze that she had seen him level at the other Servant’s last night. She wasn’t sure if she enjoyed that gaze on her.

“I’d be careful with that, Illya-hime. My past isn’t a very happy-go-lucky affair.”

Illya merely smiled determinedly at his words.

“Well, mine wasn’t either, so I think I’ll be able to handle it.”

Berserker sighed and inclined his head slightly in acceptance. 

“So, what did you see?”

Illya thought about the pertinent parts and decided to describe what she could. When she had finished Berserker looked fairly thoughtful.

“I’m surprised it showed you that far back. I was pretty young and kinda an idiot then.”

Illya couldn’t help but agree with him. Compared to what she saw last night, the boy in the dream didn’t have any sort of clue how to fight, but she supposed that he had to grow up eventually. She decided to ask what had been nagging at the back of her mind ever since she woke up.

“The other boy that I saw, the one impaled with needles, was that Itachi?”

Berserker glanced at her sharply at her inquiry, before snorting in amusement.

“No, that definitely wasn’t Itachi, I told you he was a legend in his own right by the time he was thirteen, right? Well we were twelve by that time and Itachi was long gone, no... that was Itachi’s brother.”

A wistful smile quirked Berserker’s lips as he talked about the other boy.

“He was something of a punk when he was younger, but then again so was I. Eventually we became the best of friends before we became the worst of enemies.”

Illya was intrigued at her Servant’s statement and was about to ask him to expound upon it, before that wistful smile was gone and she was once more under his calculating gaze.

“Now then, what can you tell me about that red haired Master, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you had a bit of a grudge against him.”

Illya shrugged as she tried to avoid her Servant’s eyes, so he had been able to catch onto that?

“It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of the War, but I’d rather that you weren’t fighting for something as superficial as vengeance.”

Illya felt herself grow a bit angry at that. How dare this Servant tell her to not carry a grudge for the boy that prevented her father from returning to her all those years ago. Condemning her to ten long years in the services of the Einzbern only to be…

She needed to cool her head. It wouldn’t do for her to fly off the handle on her own Servant. She thought about what she was going to say, but decided that releasing some pent up frustration might be exactly what she needed to do.

“What would you know about it!? That bastard took the only family I had left and kept him from me until he died! If I want to hate him I can!”

She was panting a bit as she finished her little rant before finally looking up at her Servant fully expecting some form of pity or anger. Instead she was met with a look of understanding. She was so shocked by his sincere look that she felt her previous anger beginning to fade away.

“It’s so easy to hate, isn’t it Illya-hime?”

Illya was caught off guard by her Servant’s tone. He sounded…tired.

It was as if he had confirmed something and was tired of finding that something out. Illya couldn’t figure out exactly what her Servant was trying to get at, but that look of understanding had shocked her more than she wanted it to. How could he understand having your entire life ripped away from you?

However, he then graced her with a small smile that somewhat took her breath away and made her realize that he was in fact a Heroic Spirit. His usual smile’s were fox-like and seemed to reflect his teasing nature. This one was a true smile, one which she felt he didn’t give very often.

“It seems there is much hate in my Master. Let’s see if we can find some compassion by the end of this War.”

Illya was puzzled by his statement, but was given no time to reflect on it as he held out his fist, obviously expecting something from her.

“You might be full of hate Illya-hime, but you summoned me and for that I am grateful. So what do you say, want to go wild in this War? How about we be partners? Even if we’re master and Servant, that doesn’t mean we can’t at least be friends.”

Illya was still slightly confused as to what he wanted her to do with his fist. After a moment he took in her confused state and leaned forward a bit to take her hand. He then curled her hand into a fist.

“I had a teacher once that taught me that bumping fists was a sign of respect and acknowledgement between friends and partners. I’d say that we can fit that bill.”

Illya looked at her newly formed fist and then to his awaiting outstretched one. She tentatively placed her fist against his and watched as another smile lit up his face. However, this time it seemed to have a proud edge to it. Illya found herself drawn to that smile, it made her want to make her Servant proud of her, just like Kiritsugu had been all those years ago. She tentatively smiled in return.

“I know that Itachi kind of said it last night, but I think I’ll do a proper introduction.”

Coughing into his hand he then raised said hand in greeting.

“Yo! My name’s Uzumaki Naruto! Nice to meet you.”

Illya’s head spun at her Servant’s reveal. So it seemed that Berserker was now willing to divulge his name after bumping fists. Illya decided that she would play along and spread her dress out to drop into a polite curtsey.

“My name is Illyasviel von Einzbern. It’s nice to finally know your real name, Uzumaki Naruto. Even though I now have your true name, I think it’s safer for me to continue using Berserker. I’ve gotten used to it and it will keep others from finding out who you are.”

Berserker nodded in agreement, crossing his arms as he did so.

“It’s nice to be reintroduced, Ilya-hime. Hopefully by the time you’re done with seeing my memories, you’ll be able to let go of your hate. It brings nothing but sorrow.”

Illya nodded her own agreement before once more gazing out toward Fuyuki. She now had the true names of both Caster and Berserker, but she was still in the dark about Archer and Saber as well as Lancer. Rider and Assassin were also out there somewhere and if Caster’s words were anything to go by, he might actually be teamed up with the Caster. A person who had Presence Concealment teamed up with a person who could cast illusions as well as Caster could? Illya shuddered at the thought. That would have to be a priority over everyone else if that were the case.

Sighing, Illya turned her attention back to her Servant, who still hadn’t moved. She pondered what she wanted him to do for a moment, but came to a decision.

“I think you might want to get a lay of the land during the daytime. There are a lot more people during the day than at night so it might be a good idea to do a little scouting. Stick to scouting this time please.”

Berserker rubbed the back of his neck a bit sheepishly at Illya’s little jab about his foray into scouting from last night. Illya rolled her eyes as she took in his sheepishness.

“Sorry about that Illya-hime, I just couldn’t resist.”

Illya shook her head in exasperation at her Servant, but decided that she had had enough for now.

“I’ll be sending some of my own familiars out to scout the area as well. I want to know what those two other Masters do during the daytime. Onii-chan is my father’s son, so who knows what he might do just to thwart the Masters during the day.”

Berserker’s grin returned, but he merely nodded his acceptance of the task that she had just given him. It seemed that he could cooperate when he wanted to.

“I’ll get right on that, Illya-hime. Have a good morning, or what’s left of it anyway. You slept in kinda late with that dream you were having of me. See ya when I get back!”

With those parting words her Servant astralized and disappeared from her immediate senses. She sighed as she began to get dressed for the day. She had been putting off some research because of the late hour in which she had arrived back at her headquarters, but it seemed that it was finally time to delve into the books that she had on Myths and Legends to attempt to find Naruto and Itachi. She also had to make some familiars to scour the city better than what she already had. Sighing, it seemed to be a theme today, she decided that it was going to be a long day.

* * *

Berserker smiled as he once more stood on top of the highest tower within Fuyuki. The daytime here was quite a bit more peaceful, even with the hustle and bustle of the masses below. It was probably due to the fact that he had no obligations to really fight anyone at the moment that he felt as though he was taking a breath of fresh air. 

Inhaling and exhaling, taking in the cold winter air, Berserker closed his eyes and concentrated on the nature that surrounded him. Even though humans had tried to detach themselves from nature over the years, they couldn’t entirely accomplish that. They were still a part of nature’s flow and so the energy came to him as it always had, even in this massive bustling city.

He felt for any high prana signatures within the city, and felt quite a few. There was also that corrupted feeling that he had gotten the previous night. If he concentrated he realized it was in the direction of the park that was in the city. He supposed he would have to investigate that at a later time. Whatever it was that was there made his hair stand on end and he didn’t want to be caught flat footed if something happened there.

However, he now felt another Servant rapidly approaching his location. Judging by the feel of the prana Berserker would say that it was probably Archer. He supposed he should have figured that the Archer class would seek out one of the highest points in the city and try to mark it as his territory. Well, here’s to hoping he would at least try to play nice in broad daylight.

Berserker didn’t have to wait long as with a swish of his red jacket, Archer appeared on the rooftop. Berserker let Sage Mode fade, Archer hadn’t seen that particular trick yet and he wanted to keep it a surprise. Satisfied that he looked normal, Berserker turned and was met with risen eyebrows and a smirk that seemed a bit condescending.

He took a moment to be able truly take in the Servant’s appearance and commit it to memory while he wasn’t throwing off a genjutsu. The Servant was tall and had fairly tan skin with distinct white hair. He was clad in a flowing red jacket of some sort and underneath that was an all black shirt that showed off the Servant’s muscles along with pants that had quite a few belts attached to them and a set of steel toed boots. His casual demeanor and somewhat lazy smirk reminded him a bit of Kakashi. Berserker felt himself involuntarily relaxing a bit around this Servant. The fighting could wait until night fell.

Apparently Archer wanted to start things off as he opened with a lazy, “Yo.”

Berserker couldn’t help a snort that escaped from him. The aloofness, the lazy demeanor, the guy probably used sarcasm on a daily basis, yeah if he didn’t know any better he might have thought Kakashi had simply changed form and been summoned as Archer. However, he knew that Kakashi didn’t fight like Archer did, so that was out. He decided to play along with the red clad Servant, raising a hand in greeting and giving a “Yo” of his own.

Archer merely seemed amused by this and crossed his arms as he looked over the city from on high.

“I didn’t think that anyone else would come up here. Most classes never bother to look for the highest point, even though it’s rather obvious that as an Archer I would actively seek out somewhere that has a good vantage point.”

Berserker grinned at Archer’s casual observance of the other classes. So he had surprised him by being here? Perhaps he wasn’t the only one scouting right now. He decided to ask a question bluntly to see if Archer would answer.

“So, how’s your Master doing?”

Archer’s smirk seemed to widen at Berserker’s question as he glanced at him briefly before turning back to his vigil of the city.

“I suppose the real question is how’s yours?”

Berserker’s own grin widened at that. Archer was the type to not want to give a direct answer to potential enemies. Berserker supposed he could respect that aspect of the red clad Servant. At least he was loyal. He decided that he would have a little fun and answer Archer truthfully, with his own spin of course.

“Apparently she’s been having dreams of me. Now I know I’m a stud and all, but I think she’s a little young for my tastes.”

It took a moment for his statement and the connotations that came with it to sink into Archer’s mind and he seemed to have a slightly dumbfounded expression for a minute before he threw his head back and started laughing.

Berserker grinned along with Archer, apparently he could surprise the Servant. That was good, it meant that when it came time to battle he would be able to be  _ unpredictable _ . Archer continued to chuckle a bit as he returned to his vigil of the city.

“I doubt your Master wants you to go around telling others about that.”

Berserker made a non committal noise in the back of his throat at that.

“There are a lot of things that Illya-hime probably doesn’t want me to do, but I’ll do them anyway. Even though we’re only supposed to be spiritualized weapons for our Masters, we still have our own personalities and goals. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to milk this brief second chance at life for all it’s worth. Otherwise what was the point of being summoned?”

Archer remained silent after Berserker’s tirade, but it was apparent that he was at least half listening. Berserker could only shake his head, well he hadn’t been expecting the guy to magically open up to him anyway. He supposed that he had enough info to judge what kind of character that Archer was.

“Something’s been bugging me. How does a Berserker get summoned in their right mind?”

Berserker grinned at that question, so he was curious?

“I don’t know, how does an Archer get summoned and use swords?”

Archer tilted his head in acknowledgement of Berserker’s rebuttal. It looked like they were done trying to figure out what made the other tick.

“Fair enough.”

Berserker nodded at Archer’s acceptance and began to walk away from his fellow Servant.

“Well, it’s been nice chatting with you and all, but I think it’s time I get back to what I was doing before. See ya.”

With his final piece said, Berserker jumped off the roof and astralized so as not to alarm anyone who wasn’t in the know about magic.

* * *

Archer could only shake his head at the departure of Berserker. The man was a complete enigma to this War. He had lucid thought and with that lucidity there was a cunning that he hadn’t been expecting. Archer had figured that Berserker might have just been a muscle head that was capable of thinking clearly, but that conversation, it was almost as if he was talking to another version of himself. It was a somewhat sobering thought to think that another Servant could plan like him in this War, he would have to be on guard against Berserker from now on.

Archer looked out over Fuyuki again. So many memories were made here for him and he was feeling a slight nostalgia at seeing it again. He supposed Rin would be off soon and then they would really deal with the alliance that she had proposed to his counterpart last night. If everything went well he would have killed his counterpart by the end of tonight. He sighed as he looked up to the sky. Berserker was using the Grail War as a chance to live again. Unfortunately for Archer, he just didn’t have that luxury.

* * *

Berserker thought over his conversation with Archer and decided that even though they would probably try to kill each other sometime in the future, he was okay with that. After all, some of his best friends had originally tried to kill him and he thought that he and Archer might eventually at least have a friendly rapport. For now he supposed it was time to do a little bit more recon. Crossing his hands in a seal that had become as familiar to him as breathing, twenty copies appeared in an instant. He supposed he could do more, but he wanted to keep as low a profile as possible.

“All of you are going to abuse the shit out of henge and go around this city trying to determine where everyone else’s bases are. Illya-hime wants a reconnaissance mission, well we’re gonna get her an ass ton of info.”

All of his clones saluted before wordlessly jumping off, many changing already, while others seemed to be waiting for something. Berserker nodded to himself. With twenty henged clones running around town, he should have the layout of the land down perfectly by the time night fell. He supposed it was time to get back to Illya.

* * *

Illya had sent a few of her own familiars to do some scouting for her right after she had sent out Berserker. Currently she was in the massive library that belonged to the Einzbern that was situated in the castle. Her perusal of the texts so far had turned up nothing on any hero named Naruto, and the same could be said for Itachi.

Obviously the two already knew of each other, so she supposed that their weaknesses and strengths were apparent to them, but Illya wasn’t content in letting her Servant do all the leg work. She had also been racking her brain to identify who Saber and Archer could be. She already knew Lancer was Cu Chulainn. He had made that apparent when he had used Gáe Bolg on her own Servant. This meant that she knew the identities of three of the Servants summoned already, even if one of them was her own. 

That should be enough to at least let her begin to take countermeasures, but she couldn’t find  _ anything _ on Naruto or Itachi. It was as if they were summoned from the far future or so distant a past that their legends had faded from memory.

Illya sighed as she closed another tome that had been a dead end. As interesting as some of the old Greek Myths were, they didn’t help her at this moment. It appeared as if she might have to ask her Servant directly for information regarding him, or rely on the dream cycle.

Shrugging she thought back to their brief interaction from this morning. He wanted a partner even though they were supposed to be Master and Servant and Illya found herself being drawn to him. However, it didn’t matter. Once the Grail was formed he would vanish, abandoning her to her loneliness once more. Not that it would matter either way if the War completed as intended.

She started as she felt Berserker once more enter the grounds. He had already completed scouting the city? That was fairly quick.

She looked over her shoulder as he materialized by her side, looking curiously at the tome that she had just been reading.

“Oh? Are you curious as to what Hero I am?”

Illya shrugged her response. She thought it was fairly obvious that she was, given the fact that her research was spread out before him. He merely shook his head at her answer.

“Well, I’d say good luck finding anything. If what the Grail told me is right, I’m from a time before the Age of the Gods, one where pretty much everyone had the potential to become a Heroic Spirit if they worked hard enough.”

Illya felt herself gaping a bit at her Servant’s casual reveal. That meant that the Servant she had summoned was old.  _ Very _ old. Perhaps she needed to dig back more towards  _ The Epic of Gilgamesh _ rather than what she had been researching.

“Well, it’s not like I’ve been keeping it a secret from you Illya-hime, all you had to do was ask.”

Illya closed her mouth and rubbed her temples to stem a slight headache that had been beginning to build for the last half hour. Apparently she really did need to stop researching for a little bit. Sighing, she stood and walked over to Berserker.

“Well, at least you’re being honest with me. I have to ask though, is the Caster a part of your legend?”

Berserker hummed as he looked around the library. He looked vaguely impressed by the sight of so many books in one place.

“Itachi was definitely a part of my legend. He died around the time I was sixteen, but he was a person that I eventually came to respect. He was probably one of the greatest heroes of my time, although it’s kind of surprising that he was summoned, mostly because he operated in the shadows.”

Illya caught on to Berserker’s implication. Caster had not been famous during his life, rather he was someone who was most likely infamous. However, he was also someone who had become infamous for a reason and that reason was something that her own Servant respected. 

Her eyes narrowed in thought. No matter what her own Servant knew, it seemed as though the masses wouldn’t have known Caster’s true nature, and he may have faded into obscurity. So how had he been summoned? Hell, how had she summoned her own Servant, who seemed to be old enough to predate the written hero? 

This War was piling on questions, questions she wasn’t sure she wanted the answers to. For now she would be content with the information that her own Servant had given her. Caster was obviously a dangerous opponent if he could use illusions with such efficiency, his ability to pull even Saber into an illusion was a testament to that, but how could they counter someone like that. Especially if it was as she feared and he was working with Assassin. She sighed as she put that particular thought to the side for now. Hopefully her Servant would be able to gather some information on the other Masters and Servants even if he was lazing about here, idly flipping through a book that he had found on her library wall.

A thought struck her as she watched her Servant.

“Have you completed the scouting mission I set for you?”

Berserker merely shook his head in a negative way, but before she could ask him why he had abandoned his mission, he explained.

“I have an ability that lets me clone myself. Those clones have a bit of my own power and can transform so that they are unrecognizable. When they dispel, whatever they learn, comes back to…”

Illya waited for him to continue, but his eyes had widened as he looked off into space for a moment.

“…me.”

That last word was said in a whisper. It appeared that he might have gotten some feedback from one of his clones already, if the frown was anything to go by.

Illya glanced at the clock. It was a little past four in the afternoon, since it was winter in Fuyuki, it would rapidly become dark soon and night would fall once again, perhaps he had encountered something?

Berserker shook his head as he focused in on Illya once more.

“It seems that there is a Master residing within a school. They were setting something up that probably wouldn’t have ended well for the students there. My clone disrupted whatever it was, then dispelled, letting me know. It probably won’t stop them from trying again.”

Illya considered this information before a grin graced her features. A Master was within the school, probably the one that Onii-chan and that Oba-san attended. How convenient. She thought it might be fun to pay the school a visit tonight, this time she would go in person. Who knows, she might run into another Master. Hopefully it would be Onii-chan, but she wasn’t feeling too picky at this point.

“Berserker!”

Berserker straightened at her commanding voice. It seemed that even though they were partners now, he would still follow her lead.

“I think I’m going to take another stroll through the town tonight, perhaps even look into the local education. I’d like you to accompany me.”

Berserker gave his half bow at her command.

“Of course, Illya-hime it would be a pleasure, when would you like to leave?”

Illya thought about it for a moment, before she came to a decision.

“We’ll leave within the hour. Will your clones be done by then?”

Berserker seemed to think about it for a moment before he nodded his consent.

“I believe they’ll have finished by then, I look forward to our excursion.”

With that he astralized once more and Illya began to exit the library. Whatever was within the school, she would find it and if she didn’t like who or what it was, she would crush them with Berserker.

* * *

Caster sat on a throne, quite similar to the one that he had awaited Sasuke’s arrival on when he was alive, his eyes closed, legs crossed as he thought. He had sent out a variety of crows to have reconnaissance going throughout the day. He had watched as the red haired student, who he had learned was named Emiya Shirou, was approached by another student who was apparently Emiya’s friend. Then the idiot had revealed that he was another Master. He had also revealed that Caster was stationed at the temple up on the hill.

Emiya had listened to his friend and Caster was glad to see that it was with a grain of salt. Perhaps Emiya wouldn’t be coming to confront him tonight. That was good, for he had other more troubling things to take care of at the moment.

Another of his familiars had attempted to spy on the Matou residence after their apparent heir had revealed himself as another Master. Before it could get to close it was killed on the spot. It appeared that there was someone who was paranoid living in that household and they were able to dispose of his familiar easily enough. 

He had also been watching as Naruto and Archer interacted, it seemed that Naruto hadn’t really changed even after all these years. It was somewhat refreshing to see him interact with enemies again. He had always had a knack for turning his enemies into friends.

Caster had also watched as the Saber had merely waited at her Master’s residence all day, preparing for the night that was to come. She hadn’t done much, probably in an effort to conserve prana. Caster knew that his genjutsu probably wouldn’t be as effective with her from now on, her Magic Resistance would see to that, but he had another ace in the hole that he thought might be able to deal with her.

Even if she took her Master’s information and decided to attack him by herself, he was ready. She would be biting off much more than she could chew if she did approach the temple. After all, Assassin was there and even Caster wouldn’t want to fight that person, even when Caster was at his best. He supposed only time would tell.

Sighing, Caster got up from his throne. It was almost time to begin putting some plans into action, but first he needed to see what the Matous were up to. It wouldn’t do for someone to escape his vision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still doing the edits, I expect to get the next chapter out a bit quicker than this one, the last few weeks were busier than I expected IRL. It's still pretty fun to be going back and editing this, I wrote these first chapters back in like 2013ish, maybe 2014 and it's fun to be rereading what I wrote and tweaking here and there to make the stroy flow better.
> 
> If you enjoyed the chapter please leave a kudos or comment! I read everything, even if I dno't respond it's always fun to se the various reactions y'all have when I post these here. Until next time!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fate/Stay Night. They belong to Kishimoto Masashi and Type-Moon respectively. Please support the official release!


	6. Second Night

It was rather quiet in the city as Berserker and Illya made their way at a leisurely pace toward the school. It had been rather interesting as only a few hours ago it had still been a bustling metropolis, but as soon as the sun had set, the side of the bridge that they were based on had become something of a ghost town.

Berserker was looking around trying to see if he could catch a glimpse of any sort of threat that might come out of the night. Even though he was confident in his abilities it would do well to remain vigilant, even as they were merely walking towards the school. He knew that people were most vulnerable when they traveled, and Assassin hadn’t shown themselves yet.

Illya seemed content to keep on walking at the sedate pace she was setting. It seemed that she was beginning to trust him a little more and he didn’t want to lose the tentative partnership that they had now formed. She was still full of hate, but by the end of this Grail War, Berserker intended to have changed that.

They finally approached the school and Berserker could only grin as his little Master marched right up to the front gate and then right through. The school really needed some better security. Then again the people in charge of that probably weren’t expecting magi and Heroes from days long past to be constantly infiltrating their school.

As soon as Berserker crossed the threshold of the school he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. It appeared that whatever was wrong here was unnatural. Berserker immediately glanced around, but saw no immediate threat to either him or his Master. All seemed fairly quiet within the school grounds.

However, Illya was looking intently at something on one of the walls of the buildings. She quietly gestured for him to walk over. Cautiously, Berserker approached his Master’s position and looked at what had caught her attention.

“What do you make of this, Berserker?”

Berserker observed the strange design and thought that it might be some type of fuuinjutsu. He studied the seal for a moment before deciding that it was indeed a type of fuuinjutsu, although it was one that he had never seen before. It was fairly similar to the one that his clone had found when he was scouting through the area beforehand.

“I’m not entirely sure what it is, Illya-hime, but I’d bet a decent amount of money that it’s a type of magecraft.”

Illya rolled her eyes at his response. 

“Of course it’s a magecraft! I already knew that! I was asking if you recognized what type of magecraft it was?”

Berserker glanced at the seal again, but he couldn’t make heads or tails of what the damn thing might represent. However, he did have an idea on how he might be able to find out.

“Well let’s see what happens when we do this.”

With that said Berserker flipped a kunai into his hand and proceeded to scratch the seal off.

“That’s one down, but I have a feeling there might be more, how about a game of hide and seek Illya-hime?”

Illya shook her head in exasperation at her Servant’s impulsiveness.

“And just who are we going to be seeking?”

Berserker gave his fox-like grin in response to her question.

“Why, whoever it was that set this up! It seems pretty elaborate and I bet we’ll be able to find more marks like the one from before. Let’s see what we draw out after we destroy the majority of them.”

His Master paused to think about his suggestion, but eventually she nodded her consent.

“I suppose it will be something to do. Let’s see just how many of these are set up. We’ll probably mess up the plans of whoever set these up as well.”

Berserker nodded and then placed his hands in a hand seal. Instantly another twenty copies appeared. He then turned to address his newly made clones.

“We need to find as many of these weird seals as possible and destroy them. Let’s find out just who is trying to mess with the school.”

His clones saluted and then blurred into action. With twenty clones it would be a cinch to find and destroy all the other seals.

As he turned back toward his Master he found himself frowning. It seemed that there was another Servant residing up near that temple that was on the hill. His clone had been moving towards the place when it had been taken out from behind. Shaking his head to get rid of the memories he once more turned his attention to Illya, who was looking at him rather oddly.

“I didn’t realize you could make so many clones at once. Are they all capable of independent thought and movement?”

Berserker grinned at his Master’s question.

“Yeah they are and this isn’t even as many as I can make. Now then, shall we begin to hunt for a few of these things ourselves?”

Illya nodded as she turned from her Servant and picking a random direction to walk in. Berserker followed dutifully behind his Master, still keeping an eye on the surrounding area. He felt as if he was being observed and he had learned to trust those instincts. It had saved his life on more than one occasion. Glancing around once more, Berserker could find nothing that should have triggered that kind of reaction. He supposed he would just have to stay on guard as they searched for the seals.

* * *

Caster was quietly making his way through the streets of the city. His Sharingan had been activated a while ago as he felt himself go into high alert. He had merely been on his way to look at the Matou’s establishment and had decided to walk through the park as a shortcut. However, as soon as he entered the area something about the place had made him feel uneasy.

He carefully regarded the moon as he slowed to a stop. It seemed that he was not the only person out for a night time stroll.

“It’s rather bad manners, not to give your name before trying to kill someone.”

Caster’s eyes zeroed in on a tree and observed a fair amount of prana as the Archer from last night materialized before him. Caster felt his eyes narrow as the Servant seemed to be sizing him up.

“Well now, I wasn’t expecting the Caster to be out for an evening stroll when I headed out tonight.”

Caster merely stayed silent at Archer’s goading tone. It seemed that the man might be fishing for information. If that was the case, then Caster would play along for the time being.

“I’ve always found that evenings are a calm time period. It has so many shadows that begin to creep forth after the long day.”

Archer smirked in amusement at Caster’s comment.

“So you prefer the shadows then?”

Caster gazed at Archer before he answered.

“Of course, they flicker and fade and you aren’t ever sure what lurks in them, the perfect place for someone like me.”

Archer crossed his arms as he hopped down from the tree he had been occupying.

“An interesting thought. Though I must tell you, your illusions…”

Archer suddenly whirled around and blocked an incoming blow from a kunai with a traced sword. Caster seemed utterly calm as the illusion of himself flickered and faded away. He grunted as he received a vicious kick from Archer.

“…I’m starting to get the hang of them.”

Caster merely remained silent as his tomoe spun threateningly in his eyes.

* * *

Berserker was becoming rather bored as they continued to dismantle whatever it was that was trying to be set up in the school. His clones had swept through the school quickly and he was pretty sure that they had gotten the majority of the seals.

He and Illya were now walking towards the gym and she seemed to be humming merrily to herself as they walked. He supposed that whoever had been setting those seals would be revealing themselves soon. He hoped it would be before they had scoured the entire school. He was getting rather bored just scratching off the seals.

“Berserker, do you have any idea why no one has arrived yet?”

Berserker could only shrug as they continued on towards the gym.

“No idea, maybe they’re scared?”

Suddenly the feeling of being watched returned and Berserker was instantly on alert. He then heard a faint rush of air and dove forward, tackling Illya and rolling with her before she could understand what was happening. 

He heard her startled yelp, but ignored it as he observed a rather odd weapon smash into the place that they had just been standing only a few seconds ago. Finally, someone had shown up.

Berserker carefully placed Illya on her feet as he stood up and observed someone approaching from the shadows. He felt his eyebrows rise as he took in their appearance as they stepped out of the shadows.

It was a woman that had just attacked him and he took a moment to admire what a fine specimen of the female species she was.

Long flowing purple hair adorned a pale face that had some sort of visor on her eyes. She was wearing thigh high black boots that stopped just before her black skirt. She was also wearing some sort of black arm warmers and a purple color that finished off the ensemble. Berserker gave her an appreciative whistle.

“Now why would someone as cute as you try to skewer me with a-”

Berserker glanced once more at the weapon and he couldn’t help but think it was a bit odd.

“-nail?”

Her weapon of choice seemed to be some sort of nail like dagger that had a chain attached to it. The chain led to the person who had just come out from the shadows.

Berserker cracked his neck as he got into a loose fighting stance. Whoever this chick was, he was pretty sure she was a Servant. He sized her up for a moment before speaking to his Master.

“Orders, Illya-hime?”

He then glanced over at his Master who was also sizing the newcomer up.

“I think we just found our culprit. Eliminate her, Berserker!”

Berserker grinned as two kunai fell into his hands and he raised them into his stance.

“With pleasure, Illya-hime!”

With that he sprang forward hoping to catch the Servant off guard and slashed at her neck. He was somewhat surprised as she bent backwards and kicked him in his floating ribs, making him wheeze out a breath of air before he was blasted backwards from the force.

He quickly flipped and landed on a building wall, using that to spring forth to try and attack her once more. This time he shifted his weight a bit and flipped attempting to land an axe kick.

The Servant twitched her wrist and Berserker saw the nail now flying at him point first. He blocked it with a kunai and twisted to throw his other kunai at her.

She nimbly leapt back as the chain from her weapon coiled like a snake and ricochet the kunai harmlessly away from her. Berserker then let himself land before backflipping over the nail. He landed a few feet away from the flexible Servant and sighed in annoyance. Well, this chick was going to be annoying.

“That’s an interesting way of fighting you’ve got there, is countering all you can do?”

He somewhat regretted his taunt the second it left his mouth as she appeared in a blur right in front of him. He barely had time to get his kunai up and block before he was once more sent flying, this time by a blow from her nail chain thing. He smashed into the wall that he had sprung from before and felt it crack.

Groaning he dropped back to the ground.

“God damn that was fast.”

He then sprung forward and blocked another attack from her dagger. The two Servants traded a series of blows before Berserker threw a kick, which she countered by raising a knee so that he couldn’t get a clean hit. She then pushed herself against his leg and spun so that she landed a spinning kick to the side of his head that sent him flying again.

Son of a bitch he was getting tired of that. She was flexible and fast enough to cause some annoying ass damage. It looked like he would have to use Sage Mode once more to help him in defeating his foe. He then flipped out of the way as the dagger smashed into the ground that he was recuperating on.

“God damn it, give me a minute to think. This is supposed to be back and forth.”

She ignored his statement and proceeded to fly at him with another kick. You know what? Fuck it. He was going to let a bit of his control slip. He let his rage come through just a little bit and the school was instantly filled with a monstrous killing intent as some of his tenant bled through.

He then proceeded to smack the girl with a straight punch and sent her flying for a change. 

He sighed as he let go of that prana. Even using that much was dangerous, he had felt the madness attempting to lure him in. Looked like that would have to be his ultimate trump card. He supposed that that’s what Noble Phantasms were for in the first place. He just hoped Fuyuki would still be standing if he was ever forced to use his.

He glanced over to his Master and noticed that she looked a little like a deer caught in the headlights. He smiled encouragingly at his little Master as he noticed she was shaking a bit.

“Don’t tell me you forgot what my class entails. That was just a taste of what’s hidden beneath my sunny disposition.”

Illya seemed to shake herself and nodded her acceptance at his reasoning. She then peered into the darkness and Berserker frowned. He had thought that the Servant would have gotten up by now. Looking in the direction he had sent her flying he realized that she had disappeared somewhere. Sighing, he turned back to Illya.

“It seems that she was able to elude us for the time being.”

Illya merely shook her head in frustration.

“After all that work she gets away, why didn’t you just do what you did in the first place?”

Berserker gave Illya a dry look.

“I rather enjoy being in my right mind. The more I use that power the closer to a normal Berserker I become.” 

Illya seemed to think his answer over for a moment before she nodded her acceptance of his reasoning.

“In any case, the night is still young. Perhaps we’ll run into someone interesting later on. Let’s go Berserker.”

Berserker gave his standard half bow.

“As you wish Illya-hime.”

The two then began to walk away from the school. They had found what they wanted there, perhaps others would follow during this night.

* * *

The clash of metal on metal rang out in the abandoned park. Archer was trying his damndest to get a clean hit on Caster, but the bastard’s eyes saw everything before Archer did it. He deftly tilted his head to avoid another thrown kunai and just to spite the man, traced a kunai of his own and chucked it at Caster.

Caster didn’t seem surprised by this and merely spun around Archer’s kunai and Archer himself before attempting to drive another kunai to the back of Archer’s neck. Archer merely fell forward and did a handspring to recover. The two briefly stopped their fight as they once more sized each other up.

“I gotta say, you’re pretty annoying even without the illusions.”

Caster remained silent as he observed Archer before he inclined his head as an acceptance of a compliment.

“You are adequate with a sword.”

Archer snorted at that, he liked to think he was a bit more than just adequate with swords. Archer’s eyebrows then rose as Caster closed his eyes and prana began emanating from him.

“I hadn’t wanted to use this quite yet, but it seems that I’ll have to, against you.”

Archer tensed as he felt the sickening feeling of death descend over the park that had nothing to do with the corrupted Grail that had once been there.

That was a hell of a killing intent that Caster was giving off. Maybe he should stop the guy?

Just before he was about to attack, the prana and killing intent disappeared. Caster opened his eyes and looked over to Archer’s left. Archer felt a bit curious at the one eighty that Caster had just done, but his curiosity was sated fairly quickly.

“God damn it. Why do I have to keep running into you?”

Archer glanced to his left and saw that Berserker and Illya were making their way over towards the fighting Servants.

“Hey, Itachi, you know anything about a Servant with long purple hair?”

Archer watched as Caster narrowed his eyes in contemplation.

“Even if I did, why would I tell you? We are technically enemies this time around, Naruto-kun.”

Berserker rubbed his neck a bit sheepishly.

“Well, I think you’re investigating something before you decide to kill all of us. What that is I have no idea, but before you find out I think you’ll be holding back a bit.”

Caster merely continued to gaze at Berserker, so his name was Naruto? Who the hell was Naruto? For that matter who the hell was Itachi? At least it sounded as if the Rider of this war was still the same. He almost sighed in relief.

“I do not know the Servant you spoke of, Naruto-kun.”

Archer almost did a double take as the stoic Caster answered.

“Damn, guess that means I just fought Rider since you know who Assassin is and I’ve fought everyone else.”

Caster inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement.

“An interesting deduction, Naruto-kun, I look forward to seeing what you do with this second chance at life.”

With that Caster dissolved into a flock of crows, much to Archer’s surprise. If the look on Berserker’s face was anything to go by, he hadn’t been expecting that either.

“Sometimes I really hate that guy.”

Archer found himself agreeing with Berserker’s sentiment. Berserker then seemed to realize that he was there as well.

“Yo, Archer. Been awhile, like, three hours right?”

Archer smirked as he finally exited his stance and dismissed his blades when he was sure that Caster wasn’t going to be showing up again.

“Nice to see you too, Berserker, or should I call you Naruto-kun?”

Berserker seemed to shudder at that.

“Nah call me Berserker, hearing you call me Naruto-kun just seems weird. If you really have to call me by my true name, just Naruto will be fine.”

Archer crossed his arms in amusement at his fellow Servant.

“Oh? And I thought we were becoming friends.”

Berserker shrugged as Illya watched on in puzzlement. It was then that Berserker seemed to realize something.

“Oh yeah, don’t know if you’ve formally met. Illya-hime, Archer. Archer, Illya-hime.”

Archer watched on in amusement as Illya’s cheeks seemed to redden from Berserker’s nickname for her. She seemed to just roll with it and dipped into a curtsey.

“A pleasure to meet you. I am Illyasviel von Einzbern.”

Archer smirked as he gave a half hearted wave.

“The pleasure’s all mine, Illya-hime.”

He continued to watch on in amusement as Illya froze and then slowly turned to her Servant.

“Now you have other people calling me that!”

If Archer didn’t know any better he would say that Illya had a bit of whine in her voice. However, he believed it was time for him to take his leave, the comedy act would have to wait. He had something rather important to do now that Caster was gone.

“As much as I’d love to stay and watch this, I’ve got things to do.”

Archer then turned to go, but was stopped by Illya’s cry of “Wait!”

Curious he turned his attention to the Einzbern, raising an eyebrow in question.

“I think I’m going to take you out of the competition. Berserker, get him!”

Archer felt his other eyebrow rise as he looked over to Berserker who was casually picking his ear with his pinky.

“Nah, I don’t feel like fighting him right now, besides, I kind of like him.”

Archer watched on as Illya gaped at her Servant, but decided to take the matter out of her hands, lest she decided to try to use a Command Spell on her Servant. With that thought in mind Archer astralized and began making his way towards the temple. There would be some interesting things happening there tonight. He was sure of that.

* * *

Caster was once more making his way towards his destination. The battle with Archer had been enlightening. He had studied the man’s moves and would be able to hold him off if he needed to now. He had also been able to refrain from using one of his trump cards. 

The moon was steadily rising in the sky as Caster once more prowled the streets. Caster gazed up at it savoring the brief peace he was enjoying. That peace was shattered by a yell.

“What do you mean you failed to stop them from destroying your fort, you piece of shit!”

Caster felt his eyes pan down to take in a scene that somewhat annoyed him. A young blue haired student that was wearing the same uniform as the one from last night was kicking a woman who was on the ground. At their feet lay another body.

Caster could tell from this distance that the body was dead. Well, it seemed that he had run into something that might be related to the War.

“I’d appreciate it if you stopped doing that.”

The blue haired student stopped kicking the woman and looked over in Caster’s direction.

“Huh? Who the fuck are you?”

Caster sighed as he turned his Sharingan onto the youth, only to be blocked by the woman.

“What the hell are you doing!?”

The woman merely regarded him coolly and Caster realized that she had some sort of visor blocking her eyes. 

“He has some sort of Mystic Eyes, let me handle him, Master.”

Caster watched on as the youth seemed to think about it before he nodded his consent.

“Whatever, kill that bastard, Rider!”

Caster sighed as the now named Rider blasted forward. She was fast, but she was still within the limits of his perception. He spun around her opening kick and lashed out with one of his own. His eyebrows rose slightly as she immediately found a center of balance and blocked his kick with a raised knee. She then proceeded to lash out with her slightly unusual weapon. A nail connected to some sort of metal chain?

However, Caster was already moving as he ducked under the blade and shot forward. He threw a few punches, but Rider apparently had decent flexibility as she weaved in and out of his attacks. She then lashed out with a knee towards his groin, but he was able to block that. Even though the move was blocked Caster was blown back by the blow.

So... flexible, fast, strong, and that visor meant that his genjutsu was out. What an annoying opponent. Caster righted himself by back flipping and landing lightly on his feet.

“You seem like a fairly decent fighter, tell me, why are you following your Master’s orders?”

Rider cocked her head to the side as if puzzled by Caster’s query.

“That’s how the War works. We need to follow them so that we can obtain the Grail.”

Caster narrowed his eyes at her statement. There was more to the story than that. He supposed that he would have to get it at a later date. He had almost been forced to use his Noble Phantasm already tonight, he would find some other time to engage this Servant. The next time it would be on his terms.

“Perhaps you merely need to find a different reality for your Master.”

With those cryptic words Caster disappeared into a flock of crows, leaving behind Rider and her blue haired Master. They would meet Caster again, he hated leaving mysteries unsolved.

* * *

Illya was once more humming to herself as she and Berserker continued to make their way around the city. True Berserker had been a bit embarrassing tonight, but she found that she couldn’t bring herself to be too annoyed with her Servant. He was rather independent, but he seemed to be loyal to her, even if he would refuse a direct order.

She paused as she looked at the rising moon. She had been expecting this War to be easy once she had summoned Heracles, but instead she got someone who called her Illya-hime and would refuse her orders at times. Even with his weird character, it seemed like he did care for her. She had found herself drawn to the conversation that they had had earlier today.

He had understood her and told her to let go of her hate, but it wasn’t that easy. Her parents had  _ promised _ that they would return. Instead one had died, while the other had adopted another son and left her to rot with the Einzberns. She felt her blood boil just thinking of him, but she forced it down. Hopefully they would run into him tonight, but if not, well the War was only just beginning. There would be time to take her vengeance later, on her terms.

She glanced over to her Servant that was walking faithfully beside her and had paused when she did an inquisitive look on his face.

“Is something the matter, Illya-hime?”

She shook her head as she continued their meandering. 

“Not at the moment. It seems that we keep running into Servants just walking around tonight. I wonder who we’ll run into next.”

A voice suddenly cut through the night.

“Funny you should mention that, ojou-chan.”

Illya was brought down to earth and found a man dressed in blue, leaning casually on a red lance, obstructing their path. He was sporting a vicious grin as he gazed at her Servant. Berserker on the other hand was gazing right back at the man, a sly smirk gracing his own features. Judging from his spear, Illya was going to go out on a limb and say that this was Lancer, this time she got to see him in person. 

Lancer then addressed her Servant.

“Remember me?”

* * *

Caster was once more walking towards his destination. He had had quite a few distractions tonight, and he was quite delayed because of it. He had decided that he needed to know what was happening with the Matou’s, but Archer and Rider had gotten in his way. It seemed that everyone was out to stall him tonight. 

Just as he had that stray thought he stiffened as  _ another _ person walked into his path. He had to hold in an exasperated sigh. Did everyone just want to get in his way tonight?

This newcomer was a man with blond hair and red eyes. He was also holding himself in a rather regal demeanor. He was dressed in a rather elegant, but plain, white shirt and a set of black pants. Even though he wasn’t openly threatening Caster; he gave off the feeling of being very dangerous.

“So, you’re one of the mysterious Servant’s that Kotomine hadn’t been able to place? Why didn’t you and your Master go to the church to let him know of your participation?”

Caster felt his eyes narrow at that. There was some sort of place that had them state their participation? He hadn’t known that.

“I suppose it’s because I like to remain as anonymous as possible.”

The blond haired man’s eyes narrowed at Caster’s answer.

“Oh? It seems that you’re not one to follow rules blindly. Very well then, let’s see what kind of entertainment you can give me for this War, mongrel.”

With his piece said the blond man placed his hands in his pockets and began to walk back in the direction he came. Caster observed him carefully, not moving from his spot until the man was gone. Well, it seemed like he had another mystery to solve. Just who was that man? And who was Kotomine? He supposed he might have to find out where the place to give notice of participation was. He had a feeling that he wouldn’t like whatever it was that he might find there.

Caster sighed. Perhaps now he could continue on with the original errand that he had decided to accomplish tonight. With that thought Caster continued on.

* * *

Saber felt rather angry with her Master at the moment. He knew where the enemy was stationed and he had decided not to make a move on them. She gazed around the house as she exited through the front gate. If he would not fight, then she would just have to take care of this Servant in the temple herself. She was confident in her abilities to thwart any Servant that might be residing upon the hill.

True, Caster had caught her off guard, but she was confident that her Magic Resistance would be a factor when fighting him and even though Berserker had surprised her with his lucidity and skill, she was confident she could defeat him if their paths crossed again. She needed to have that confidence as she rushed towards the temple. Whichever Servant was residing there, they would probably be dangerous, but they also might not be expecting anyone to come and blatantly attack them.

Her armor shined in the moonlight as she finally made it to the bottom of the stairs. She began to rush up them, taking two at a time. She would utterly destroy whichever Servant was up here for her Master. It didn’t matter who it was they would fall before her blade. She had spent years honing her skill and had participated in the War before this. She was prepared for just about anything.

As she rapidly approached the torii gate a soft voice rang out in the night.

“So, you did come.”

Saber was startled to a stop as a man seemed to melt out of the shadows beside the gate. The first thing she was drawn to was the headband that he was wearing. Like Berserker and Caster he had the same type of marking on the metal plate. She then moved her eyes down to his face and took in his features. Startling blue met her own aqua as he calmly gazed down at her. His blonde hair was stirred slightly by a gentle breeze that had begun to pick up. He was wearing some sort of blue uniform beneath a white overcoat that was fluttering along with his hair.

She stood, slightly transfixed by this person and realized that her back had straightened a little just by being in his presence.

“Itachi-chan is pretty good at figuring out what people are going to do. He predicted your Master might not approve of you coming here, but you would want to strike anyway. I suppose that’s why he left me here.”

At seeing what was no doubt a puzzled expression on her face he gave a little chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“Ah, where are my manners.”

He then gave her a half bow, never taking his eyes off her.

“My name is Namikaze Minato, the Assassin of this War.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again.
> 
> Thanks for readin the next chapter of Lucid, been plucking away at some original novel stuff so been a bit behind in my editing of this, but I've hit a block there for the time being, so back to editing and posting here. Thanks for the kudos and comments so far and if you're feeling kind please leave more. Until the next chapter!


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